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Five components of a successful strategic communications plan.

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Director of Marketing at haseebtariq.com. I help fix large revenue retention & growth issues.

Communication is a critical part of any organization's success. Once, I was working closely with the senior leadership to create an email that addressed late deliveries. I remember that when we first started, there were so many ideas swirling in our heads about how to approach this project and what tone of voice would be best for our company. I wished I had someone with a communications strategy plan who could tell me the "best" way to approach this project in order to be successful.

I started reading and researching, looking for what I felt was a good strategy to communicate with our target audience. Luckily, after some research and conversations with others who had more experience than myself on the topic at hand, what finally developed was a communications strategy plan that we used over and over again for all of our marketing and communication efforts.

What Is A Communications Strategy Plan?

A communications strategy is a plan for communicating with your target audience. It includes who you are talking to, why you are talking to them, how and when you will talk to them, what form of communication the content should take and what channels you should use to share it.

1. What Is The Purpose Of Your Communications Plan?

A clear purpose helps keep everyone on board. Make sure the right people hear your message when they are ready and in a way that you want them to hear it. Your communication objectives should be to answer these questions: Who do I need to reach? Why do I need to reach them? What will my communications say? How will I deliver this message at the time that will have the best impact on my audience (and for me)? And what channels am I using or can I use for delivery?

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2. Who Are You Communicating With (Or Who Is Your Target Audience) And What Message Do They Need To Hear?

Target audiences can vary from one time to another and may include your customers, employees or the media. Define who needs to hear what is happening in your organization. Every communications plan is different, but they should never be one-size-fits-all. It's a good idea to create an audience map that identifies key audiences and the messages they need to hear about your organization or cause in order for them to take action.

3. How Will This Message Be Communicated?

Your communications strategy provides the framework for the company's outreach activities, including what needs to get out there through communication channels like social media, email marketing, blog posts, video content on YouTube or Vimeo and so on. In my experience, the more specific you are with your messaging (and visuals) — even if it seems repetitive — the better your chances of getting people engaged and taking action are.

4. When Should This Communication Happen — Right Now Or Later On?

Organizations have to use their communications wisely and strategically in order to be successful with them. But the importance of timing is also important for communicating effectively. Your communications strategy should specify when the message should be communicated, including whether that's right now or later on. Your communications team should take these considerations into account as they develop your messaging and timing plan. In addition, I recommend developing two equally effective strategies: one for "now" and another that can be deployed in anticipation of events that might happen later down the road. A crisis communication plan helps cushion against unexpected turns of events, no matter what happens.

5. Who Will Be Responsible For The Communication?

Communications professionals should be the ones responsible for communicating with external audiences, and they should do so often during a crisis. However, human resources departments may also need to communicate internally about any changes that may affect employees. Define key messages, and then decide who will deliver them. Define the audience and focus on what they need to know about this change. Be sure to provide information in a timely way, but also keep the message concise so that employees can digest it easily.

Bottom Line

A strategic communications plan can help you communicate your message to the right people at the most opportune time. By considering these five components, you can put together a solid strategy that could drive more success for your business and bring about your desired results in less time.

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How to Create a Communication Strategy [+ Free Templates]

Published: February 09, 2021

There are certain characteristics that should be at the core of any successful business. For instance, every business should have a great product or service, awesome employees to keep the internal engine running, and loyal customers who support through purchases and advocacy.

There also has to be underlying elements to help establish the aforementioned characteristics. And one of the most necessary is clear and effective communication.

Communication is at the root of every interaction for businesses. Without transparent communication at every level, there's more room for error, and — depending on the magnitude of the error — it can make or break a business.

But, while 89% of people feel communication is extremely important for work, 8 out of 10 people rate their own business' communication as either average or poor.

Developing a communication strategy for your business will help you understand how your company best communicates, internally and externally, and can give you measurable results to better understand the efficacy of your communication tactics.

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In this post, we'll explain how to create a communication strategy and plan for your business to ensure efficient, cohesive communication with colleagues and customers alike.

What is a communication strategy?

A communication strategy is a process developed by the appropriate stakeholders to identify where communication efforts need to be improved. The next step in this process is to ideate and select measurable actions that will be used to develop a communication plan to achieve your desired outcome.

How to Develop a Communication Strategy

Use a Communication Plan template.
Determine current and potential problems.
Select key stakeholders who need to be involved.
Understand your audience and what matters most to them.
Brainstorm your ideal results, and then work backwards.

1. Use a communication plan template.

HubSpot's Communication Plan Templates are a great resource to help you develop actionable steps without having to spend too much of your time on this task.

Your communication plan will clearly go through all of the steps you need to take to address the challenges you're up against — like completing an audit, setting SMART goals , and understanding how long each step in your plan will take. Depending on your overall strategy, you may develop multiple plans to be carried out to meet the needs of different audiences.

You'll want to break your plan into steps so you can easily make and measure progress on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Additionally, as you're creating your communications plan, you'll need to factor in a working timeline, potential budget, and ensure you're delegating tasks to the appropriate team members.

Over time, you want to be able to reflect on what changes have been made and if these changes are actively contributing to helping you achieve your ideal results.

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How to Communicate Your Company’s Strategy Effectively

David Lancefield

Ditch the lofty purpose statements and lengthy slide decks.

For too long, communicating strategy has been an afterthought. Executives have shared long, bombastic documents or withheld critical information and expected people to just “get it.” And it hasn’t worked. Greater external uncertainty, collaboration, employee anxiety, and organizational openness demands a change of approach. The author presents five actions that will improve the clarity and quality of communication, enabling stakeholders to make a more substantive and meaningful contribution to the strategy.

Most people can’t recall the strategy of the organization they work for. Even the executives and managers responsible for strategy struggle, with one study reporting that only 28% of them could list three strategic priorities.

David Lancefield is a catalyst, strategist, and coach for leaders. He’s advised more than 40 CEOs and hundreds of executives, was a senior partner at Strategy&, and is a guest lecturer at the London Business School. Find him on LinkedIn (@davidclancefield) or at davidlancefield.com , where you can sign up for his free “Mastering Big Moments” workbook .

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6-Step Guide to Crafting the Perfect Communication Plan

A communication plan is a key to developing an effective and consistent messaging strategy.

It helps guide the process of setting measurable goals for your strategy, profiling your target audience and creating and successfully delivering your message.

What is a Communication Plan

Components of a Communication Plan

Steps to communication planning, step 1 – perform a situation analysis, swot analysis, pest analysis, perceptual map, step 2 – identify and define objectives / goals, step 3 – understand and profile your key audience, step 4 – decide the media channels and create a strategy, step 5 – create a timetable for publishing, step 6 – monitor and evaluate the results, common mistakes to avoid when creating communications plans, faqs about communication plans, what’s your approach to writing a communication plan, what is a communication plan.

A communication plan outlines how teams can communicate important information to key stakeholders. It highlights what information should be shared, when, to which audience and via which channels.

Having a solid communication plan in place will help ensure that the communication objectives of your organization are met and that all assets that you send out are aligned with the core communications strategy of the company.

In marketing and public relations, communication plans are used to plan how important information about products and services will be communicated to target audiences, including customers, clients, media and the general public. Companies also use communication plans to maintain consistent and effective internal communications within the organization. These may include internal newsletters, intranet updates and team Wikis. In project management, communication plans are used to highlight how information will be communicated within teams and relevant stakeholders, throughout the lifecycle of the project. Overall, communications plans offer a structured approach to plan, implement and evaluate communication efforts to optimize the effectiveness of communications.

Use this communication plan template to develop your strategy and deploy it.

Why is a Communication Plan Essential?

Clear communication is the backbone of any successful initiative. A communication plan ensures that everyone is on the same page, reducing the risk of confusion, missed deadlines, and unmet expectations. It fosters trust, ensures transparency, and can be the difference between project success and failure.

Who Should Use a Communication Plan?

A communication plan isn’t just for large corporations or project managers. It’s for anyone aiming to streamline interactions, whether you’re a small business owner, a team leader, or an individual looking to improve personal projects. Understanding your audience and tailoring your communication strategy to them is the first step.

When Should You Implement a Communication Plan?

The best time to implement a communication plan is at the onset of a project or initiative. However, it’s never too late. Whether you’re starting a new project, revamping an old one, or looking to improve ongoing communications, a well-structured plan can make a difference.

Where Does a Communication Plan Apply?

While often associated with business projects, communication plans apply everywhere: from community events, educational programs, to personal projects. Any scenario that requires organized communication can benefit.

Your communications plan should include the following key elements.

1. Target Audience

Who is Your Target Audience? All strategic communications should be directed at a specific audience. Accordingly, the message you send out should be tailored to their level of knowledge, understanding and trust in your brand or organization.

What is the Context of Your Message? The next step is to define the context of your message. Identify key events that may be significant to the audience that you are aiming to reach. The context defines what should be included in the message and how your audience will relate and respond to it.

3. Outcomes

What Do You Aim to Achieve with Your Message? The outcome of your message is the ‘call to action’. Define what people need to know, believe and do after receiving the message. Create a ‘message pyramid’ with an attention grabbing headline, followed by ‘reasons why’ and proof points. This helps the audience understand your core message and then consider the proof points which are relevant to their context, and there by act based on your call-to-action.

Which Media Channels Will You Use? Media are the channels through which your message is communicated. These may vary depending on the content, context and audience of the message. For instance, if you want to reach a younger tech-savvy audience, you may choose a social media platform that may be popular among them.

5. Messengers

How Will You Choose Your Messengers? The primary messenger may not always be the most ‘effective’ messenger. The messenger’s ethos should resonate credibility, status and power, expertise and relationship.

Why do most companies get their CEOs or members of the senior management to conduct new product launches or convey important product information? It is because audiences tend to have confidence in people with big titles who have an influence in the organization. They are also experts in their subject area and have a strong relationship with the company.

6. Measurement

How Will You Measure Success? It is important to cultivate strategies to measure the effectiveness of your communications. Include KPIs for your communication activities and document the results. This also helps build a repository of information which will be useful when planning future communications activities.

Whether you are creating a marketing communication plan or a strategic communication plan, the following steps will help guide you.

Situation analysis helps assess the capabilities of and health of things in an organization. It’s the ideal way to understand the current status of your organization’s communication.

You can gather as much information as needed from conducting an audit .

To gather relevant information from situation analysis, you can consult departmental heads, process owners and other internal staff members.

In a situation analysis, you need to examine both the internal and external environments. To do so, you can use the following tools

You can use a SWOT analysis to examine the strengths and weaknesses within your organization, and opportunities and threats that you can find in your external environment.

With a PEST analysis , you can examine political, environmental, social and technological factors, all of which exist in the external environment of your organization, but can have a significant impact on the way things run in your business.

One good competitor analysis technique is the perceptual map. It helps you make sense of how your customers perceive the brands of your competitors in the market compared to yours.

Once you know where you stand, you can find your direction. The next step is to define your goals.

Think of what outcomes/results you want to achieve from your communication plan. These will become your goal/s as you develop your communication plan.

Make sure that the goals you select are SMART :

Who are you creating this communication plan for? Understanding your audience and their requirements, characteristics etc. is key to creating an effective message and delivering it successfully.

Your key audience could be within your organization or your customers. Either way, you should gather information on them and create simple audience personas.

These personas could include a variety of data that ranges from their age and gender to the challenges they face.

As you conduct research on your target audience you would get to know that their requirements and preferences are diverse.

It’s clear that you won’t be able to reach all of them through one media channel or retain their attention with one type of content.

Consider the most effective channels you can think of when creating your media channel strategy. Make sure to select the ideal channel when you are targeting different audience segments.

Media Channel Strategy for Communication Plan

When do you want your audience to hear your message and how often? Have a content calendar or create a Gantt chart outlining a timeframe for your publishing strategy.

You may also need to take the resources available to you into consideration. If you have one content writer, publishing quality blog posts on a daily basis would be ineffective.

Constantly monitor and track your results in order to understand whether you are any closer to achieving your goals. If you have failed, proceed to mark it down so you can make necessary improvements next time.

Creating a communication plan for your non profit organization? Check out this resource for some great tips.

Overcomplicating the Plan

Trying to include too many channels or too much information may complicate the plan. This can lead to confusion and dilute the effectiveness of your messaging. Stick only to key messaging and channels that are most effective in reaching and engaging the target audience.

Not Considering the Timing

Timing is crucial in communication planning. It is important to consider the timing of the messaging and ensure that they are aligned with key events or milestones. Don’t send out important communications during periods of high volume or noise, such as during holidays or major news events.

Not Adapting to Changes

Communication plans should be adaptable and flexible to changes in environment or audience. It is important to regularly review and update plans to keep up with emerging trends (to make sure that your plan stays relevant and effective). Failing to adapt to changes may cause missed opportunities and ineffective messaging.

How often should a communications plan be updated?

A communications plan should be updated regularly to reflect changes in the organization’s goals, priorities, audiences, or external environment. The frequency of updates will depend on the pace of change in the organization and the industry. A good rule of thumb is to review the communications plan annually and update it as needed. However, if there are major changes in the organization, such as a merger, acquisition, or crisis, the communications plan should be updated immediately to ensure that communication is timely, accurate, and effective.

How can an organization measure the effectiveness of its communications plan?

An organization can measure the effectiveness of its communications plan by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) related to its communication goals and objectives. These KPIs may include website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, media coverage, customer satisfaction surveys, or sales figures. By tracking these KPIs over time, the organization can assess whether its communication activities are achieving the desired results and make adjustments as needed. It’s important to set realistic goals and benchmarks for each KPI and to ensure that the data is collected consistently and accurately. Additionally, feedback from stakeholders, such as customers, employees, and investors, can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the organization’s communication activities.

A successful communication plan will get your message delivered across to your audience effectively while ensuring that you are on track to accomplishing your business objectives.

Follow the simple steps above to create a winning communication plan. If you have any other tips, do share them with us in the comment section below.

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Ultimate Tool Kit: Free Communication Strategy Templates, Examples, and Expert Tips

By Joe Weller | June 29, 2017 (updated July 21, 2021)

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Developing a communication strategy and formalizing it into a written plan is challenging, but it’s worth every bit of the time and energy investment it takes. A well-executed, tailored strategy and resulting message platform will get everyone inside your organization on the same page about how to communicate your company’s mission statement, and why and how you do what you do.

In this article, you’ll find tips and examples from two PR CEOs, a step-by-step guide to putting together your own plan, and templates galore -- including a nine-step strategic communications plan template and crisis communication planning template -- and additional resources to help you craft a communication strategy to navigate a more successful future.

What Is Communications Strategy and Planning?

A communications strategy clearly identifies the objectives and processes of your organization's outreach activities. It covers what the organization needs to share and whom to share with to meet goals. Formalized as a written plan, it’s an important part of daily operations. It frames media activities, including both external and internal communications, defines priorities, time frames, target audiences, staff assignments, and resources.

Developing a communications strategy is a complex undertaking with lots of moving parts. PR pros like John Raffetto and Dianna Booher understand best practices and exactly what goes into creating and executing an effective communications strategy.

John Raffetto is CEO and Co-founder of RH Strategic, a PR firm based in Seattle and Washington, D.C. specializing in technology, security, healthcare, and public sector markets. John got his start in PR by way of the U.S. Senate, where he served as a press secretary and communications director. In 2000, he began consulting with technology companies, and moved to Seattle in 2004 with Infotech Strategies to open a west coast office. He started RH Strategic in 2007 with David Herman.

Dianna Booher , CEO of Booher Research, is a bestselling author of 47 books, including her latest: Communicate Like a Leader: Connecting Strategically to Coach, Inspire, and Get Things Done . She works with organizations to help them communicate clearly and with leaders to expand their influence by fostering a strong executive presence. Good Morning America, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily , Bloomberg, Forbes.com, Fast Company, FOX, CNN, NPR, Success, and Entrepreneur routinely interview her for opinions on critical workplace communication issues.

We asked Raffetto how he begins his planning process. “At RH Strategic we begin all strategic planning with the question, ‘Where do you see your company in five years?’ This reveals the highest level objectives and helps us layer in a communications plan that is 100 percent aligned with where the leadership is taking the company,” says Raffetto. “We then develop three or four communications plan objectives, and then we align every tactic -- whether it is a speaker placement, an event, a media campaign or an influencer engagement initiative -- with one or more of these objectives.”

Meanwhile, Booher has an eight-step process she uses to develop a communications strategy plan for a client, company, or specific event:

Step 1: Interview all the primary stakeholders to get their perspective on the problem and the goal. Step 2: Analyze the data to see where there’s agreement. Step 3: Decide if it’s necessary to collect more data to further investigate the misalignment. Step 4: Interview other stakeholders (second-tier people) to understand how they see the problem and the goal. Step 5: Reconfirm the goal with the primary stakeholders. Step 6: Design an implementation plan, along with measurements of success. Step 7: Execute the plan. Step 8: Measure success

Types of Communications Strategy Plans

There’s no single way to create a plan since, as Raffetto notes, you must customize it to your organization, goals, environment and situation, and there are different types of communications strategy plan.

Booher concurs, and says, “Every situation differs. So I don’t routinely use any particular template all the time. But I do have templates that I use when I identify similar problems.”

Here are three general types of plans that any non- or for-profit organization may create to meet either long-term or short-term goals:

Overall Communication Strategy for Organization: A communication strategy is both subservient and complementary to the overall marketing strategy, which takes its direction from the organization’s overall business strategy. The business strategy is general and pinpoints the desired bottom-line financial outcome. The marketing strategy supports those goals with strategies that incite target audiences to take what you’ve determined to be the desired action, whether it’s buying a product or service, making a donation if you’re a non-profit, or signing up for an online class if you’re a web-based university. The marketing strategy assembles all the other strategies, one of which is communications. The organization’s communication strategy plan is in fact more closely tied to tactics, as we’ll see as we move through the steps to creating your plan.

If you haven’t completed a marketing communication strategy, you’ll need to do that before you begin your communication strategy plan. This free annual marketing plan template can help you get started. Simply download the template and you can adjust it to reflect the necessary components of your individual marketing plan. It includes campaign type, project goals, target audience, response rates broken down into sections for national and local efforts, content marketing, online marketing, media relations, public relations, trade shows and events, sales campaigns, and branding efforts. Objectives are clearly identified along with total costs and target markets. At the top of the template, you can define monthly sales goals and at the lower section of the template you’ll find a place to record marketing effectiveness metrics.

Download Marketing Plan Template

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Event or Product/Service Launch Communications Strategy: In addition to the overarching organizational communication plan, there is often a need to create ‘sub plans’ that support time-constrained events like product or service launches or a fundraiser. Event specific communications should still tie into the overall communication, marketing, and business strategies. Plan components (targets, budgets, and messaging) are the same as your overall plan, and you can use the same templates to work on the details.

Booher adds, “If delegating responsibilities is a problem, I use this 15-item delegation checklist to help the manager handle the what, why, when, and how productively.

Download the 15-Item Delegation Checklist by Dianna Booher

Crisis Communication Strategy: Another situation that requires a time-constrained strategy and plan is crisis communications, which deals with unexpected or disruptive events that threatens the organization, stakeholders, or sometimes even proposes harm to the general public. Usually, these events garner negative media attention that you’ll want to preempt or have a response plan for. A business must be able to respond promptly, accurately, and confidently during an emergency. While you can’t anticipate a particular crisis, you can have a structure and process in place, and then quickly ‘fill in the blanks’ in a written document when it’s necessary. Examples are theft, legal disputes, or manmade disasters blamed on your organization. Conversely, your company could also deal with the repercussions of not reacting to these types of situations in the appropriate manner. You’ll find more information on crisis communication and templates to help manage these situations later in this article.

What Problems that Communications Strategy Plans Solve

There are multiple benefits to having a formal, written communications strategy plan for any organization (government agencies, consumer brands, charities, and universities) and the teams within it. Here are some:

Form Consensus: Getting involved in the process and integrating participants’ opinions brings a sense of ownership. A written plan means that everyone is following the same playbook and working toward a clear, common goal.
Realistic Timelines: Planning in advance and creating work-back schedules helps organize how to execute individual tactics and the overall plan.
Identify Needed Resources: With timelines in place, it is easier to identify if you need to add outside help to the team, if you need to reassign existing team members, and how to budget based on the strategy.
Assign Responsibilities: A plan will help manage people understand their contributions to the company and their responsibilities
Channel Planning: There are many different ways to spread your message. Identifying which channels to use for what type of communication will help you focus your attention so that you aren’t continuously pulled in different directions.
Identify Risks: Having team reviews at set intervals will help you determine what’s working and what needs to change, and will strengthen your strategy and plan.
Success Metrics: Goals should be part of your strategy and serve as guideposts for plan evaluation and to highlight areas that should be improved in both current and future efforts.

The Benefits of a Communications Strategy in Action: Three Case Studies

How do strategic communication plans work in practical reality? Raffetto provides a client case study:

RH Strategic has a client that has developed a game-like technology to help kids learn math. It’s incredibly powerful in that it ‘learns the learner’ and personalizes lessons to each student’s learning style. As a result, it closes the gap in math achievement. Teachers and students love it, but not everyone in education is aware of it or understands the opportunities it offers.

RH Strategic was retained to build a PR strategy to change that. We spent a full day with various executives and a whiteboard to map out the company’s future and to develop top communications objectives.The top two were to grow brand awareness among school district buyers and selection in the market, and to leverage top executive’s thought leadership to change conventional thinking in the market. Knowing this, we then built a plan that mixed intense, month-to-month media outreach and media coverage with speaker placements and social media tie-ins to drive toward both objectives.

Most recently, the CEO was featured in the New York Times Corner Office column as a thought leader – an article that not only reached millions directly, but was also shared repeatedly on social media and spawned many other media and speaking requests. In parallel, our team was also busy promoting the brand and the product to the education trade press and local media. As part of our original communications strategy, we developed a customer award program that drove a tremendous amount of local press coverage for the brand, which tended to get neighboring school districts’ attention and motivated them to investigate whether they should be customers as well. Prior to this effort the company got very little visibility in the local press.

Each quarter we took a snapshot of the progress and were pleased to discover that the quantity and quality of results tied to each strategic objective expanded dramatically from one quarter to the next. That is a classic case of ‘success breeds success’ and demonstrates how a strategic communications program can take a company’s visibility to the next level.

Booher provided a case study that exemplifies how to strategize a communications plan to change the perception of internal stakeholders:

An executive vice president of a large utility company called me with this problem: “I’m concerned that the organization may be considering outsourcing the work that my division of about 2,000 employees now does. They continue to cut our budget and have capped headcount. Yet we provide essential services — IT, records management, HR functions. I feel as though I’m always on the defense to justify our existence.” Rather than justifying budget and headcount, I suggested a strategy of education. The VP and his three direct reports admitted that the typical employee in the 50,000+ organization did not even know what function the ‘Administration’ division played. So why would they possibly fight to keep these services internal rather than outsourced? Answer: They wouldn’t. Consequently, all the senior executives agreed on a strategy to educate the entire employee population about what back-office services the division actually provided to garner support to keep these services inhouse. The tactical plan followed. A five-page communication plan containing a bulleted list of action items to implement the strategy. For example:

Modify the email signature blocks to add an educational tagline.
Train department representatives to take on a customer service attitude toward internal customers they serve.
Have system analysts send follow-up emails after providing IT services, for example, to make sure a newly installed software package is running smoothly.
Ensure that the Records Storage department regularly sends out a reminder of the archiving schedule.

Result: The “Administration” division became visible to the entire organization, and 2,000 people kept their jobs.

In an altogether different situation, Booher developed another plan for her client to improve internal and external communication:

The goal was to improve communication flow across department lines and to improve communication with clients. Here’s how I handled it in brief:

The strategy: Identify the roadblocks and improve the written communication (since almost all communication was in writing). The tactical:

Review their templates to see what they were using.
Review sample correspondence.
Interview department managers to get their perspective on the problem.
Train their group of writers whose main role it was to communicate with customers.
Rewrite/improve all their boilerplate documents so that they are starting with appropriate models.
Change the physical layout of the office so that they have verbal interaction on a daily basis.
Coach their senior executive on using more up-to-date methods of approvals/signatures and eliminating antiquated phrasing in his own correspondence.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Strategic Communications Plan

Like a well-built engine, a strategic communications plan has many specifically engineered parts to accomplish your goal. While every communications plan should be thoroughly customized, there are common, time-tested components that go into a high-performance plan.

RH Strategic uses proprietary templates to track communications strategy. “The RH Strategic team has developed its own templates over the years,” says Raffetto. They all include research and discovery where we assess the client’s market landscape and their strategic objectives; various programs to achieve those objectives; and measurement initiatives so that all parties can assess at any time the progress of the strategy and make adjustments. It’s a pretty simple and logical template, and it’s designed to be useful not just to the communications team but the entire executive suite and even the boardroom.”

Next, you’ll find descriptions of all the component pieces and templates you can use to develop your own plan.

Begin With Your Mission Statement

The mission statement defines the reason your organization exists and serves as a framework to evaluate current and prospective activities. Include your mission statement at the very beginning of the communications plan to show that the initiative doesn’t just come from the communications department or consultant. Your mission statement should also inform your key messages, which should be brief, non-jargony benefit statements.

Here’s an example of messaging that comes directly from defining a mission. Highfive, a video conferencing company, has a brief mission statement: Our mission is to make every conversation face-to-face . Their three key value-driven messages are:

Highfive is beautifully simple video conferencing that you can initiate or join with a single click
Twenty conference rooms for the price of one Cisco or Polycom system
Built for businesses, not social networking

The messages support the mission statement, clearly states the benefits, and the copy is easy to use in all types of formats. Before you begin creating your own messages, there are other steps to take, beginning with research.

Do Your Research

To develop an effective strategy, you need to take a deep dive into understanding your operating environment, strengths and weaknesses, competitors, audiences, and how to message based on goals. An important element to explore is what communication platforms and channels you’ll use to spread your message, and finally the metrics you’ll use to ensure the effectiveness of your efforts. Here are some types of analysis you can perform to help you identify how to move forward:

PEST Analysis: PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis is the first step an organization can use to begin their overall business planning. It’s a tool to help you understand your business position, and market growth or decline, and scan your environment. By understanding these factors, you can determine overall opportunities and threats to your organization.

Once you’ve completed your PEST analysis, you can move on to look at your direct competitors in the marketplace.

SWOT Analysis SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is an analysis framework that identifies and examines the internal and external environmental factors that can impact project, product, place, or person viability. Originally developed for Fortune 500 companies, organizations of all kinds have embraced SWOT as a decision-making aid. SWOT analyzes four areas:

Strengths: Internal attributes and resources that provide advantages.
Weaknesses: Internal attributes and resources that are a disadvantage to the organization when compared to others.
Opportunities: External factors that a company can exploit to gain an advantage.
Threats: External factors that could result in jeopardy.

This environmental scan is a means to help decision makers ascertain if the project or goal is worthwhile and what’s needed to make it successful. The next step is to match resources to meet the identified challenges and opportunities. Below you’ll find some templates you can download to help with your research.

SWOT Analysis Strategy Template for Excel

Use this template to examine the relationships between external and internal drivers, and determine what strategies you can employ to address different threats, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. You can find more SWOT templates here in a variety of formats.

‌ Download the SWOT Analysis Strategy Template

Competitor Analysis Template for Excel

Use this template to perform a competitive evaluation of your organization and to inform your communication strategy based on product categories. A detailed multi-layered template for each product category will help you analyze major attributes and channels, pricing, credibility, promotional offers, and relevant research findings. It also enables the identification of opportunities and potential partners.

‌Download Competitive Analysis Template

Create S.M.A.R.T. Objective(s)

To provide structure, guidance, and to better identify what you want to accomplish for your communication strategy plan, S.M.A.R.T. goals are especially effective. They are:

Specific: A mission statement for your goal that clarifies what you want to accomplish
Measurable: Think about meaningful metrics that will create a tangible way to measure progress
Achievable: You and your team agree on what’s attainable
Relevant: Focus on what makes sense within broader business goals and realistic resources
Time Bound: Target timing, along with interim schedules, for deliverables

To learn more, read The Essential Guide to Writing Smart Goals . You can also use the following template to get started writing your S.M.A.R.T goals.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals Template

This template helps clarify the five classic S.M.A.R.T. steps for your communications strategy or any other project. Once you complete the questionnaire, the answers will help fine-tune your strategy into attainable goals. You can use it as a tool for the whole team to make sure your goals are realistic, and to form consensus before moving on to the next steps in your strategic communication planning process.

‌ Download the S.M.A.R.T. Goals Template - WORD

Identify Audiences and Influencers

Knowing who influences you and who you influence will clarify the impact of the actions you take and the messages you create. Whether you’re carrying out a full communication strategy for your organization or developing a new campaign, it’s important to identify and understand the full range of stakeholders (internal, external, more remote influencers, or societal) you’ll need to consider. Once you identify your stakeholders, learn how to manage those relationships by reading The Definitive Guide to Stakeholder Management .

Stakeholder Analysis Matrix Template

Track which stakeholders are likely to have the most or least interest and influence in your communications strategy based on your research. This is a useful template for strategizing and creating an effective plan of action for stakeholder management. Visualizing stakeholders in this way makes it easy to understand which audience needs greater focus and which need less monitoring.

Download Stakeholder Analysis Matrix Template

Excel | Word | PDF | Smartsheet

Internal and External Stakeholder Communication Plan Template

Don’t forget your internal stakeholders. As we saw from Booher’s case study above, it’s critical to engage with internal stakeholders. You need to align employees and other internal agents to your messages and actions, and clarify who acts as important conduits of information to the outside world. This simple communications template clarifies stakeholder interest and power, type and frequency of communication for each stakeholder, and provides a space for comments. ‌ ‌ Download Internal and External Stakeholder Communication Plan Template - WORD

Check In with Colleagues

Take some time to learn what your colleagues know and the strengths they can bring to your communications efforts. Then use the RACI model (Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed) to help team members understand their roles and responsibilities to ensure collaboration and project success. This activity is especially important when team sizes are large, when team members are in different geographic areas, or if you need to rely on staff from multiple departments. Roles and Responsibilities Template for Excel

Use this template to keep tasks organized by team members, save time or eliminate the need for extended status meetings, and ensure that communication strategy plan goals are tracked and met.

‌ Create the Roles and Responsibilities Template in Smartsheet

Define Your Key Messages

Now that you’ve identified your key stakeholders and target audiences, you need to determine what you want them to know, think, and do as a result of your communication strategy and tactics? You should be able to refine your message to three key points, and if necessary to adjust those statements slightly for specific target audiences.

Key Messaging Tips

Keep it Concise: Limit key messages to three and keep them brief. A good test is to see if they take 30 seconds or less to read out loud.
Think Strategically: Define, differentiate, and address your benefits/value proposition.
Be Relevant: Consider what your audiences need to know as you balance what you must communicate.
Compelling: Stimulate action with meaningful information that incites a response.
Keep it Simple: Avoid jargon and acronyms, and use easy-to-understand language.
Memorable: Avoid run-on sentences, and make the messages easy to remember and repeat.
Be Active: Avoid the passive voice. Get your message across briefly, but don’t use tricky advertising style slogans.
Be Specific: Tailor communication to different target audiences.

Theme Development

Do some team brainstorming and develop a list of topics for your website, social media, and email marketing strategy. The themes should be relevant to all your target audiences and contribute to your organization’s positioning.

It’s a good idea to roll out themes weekly to maintain momentum and keep building interest in the next messaging installment, whether it’s email, direct mail, or social media. You also need to consider key dates for your organization like anniversaries, conferences, or seasonal activities, and build messaging around those.

All of this legwork should also inform upcoming campaigns to support product rollouts or other key events. Once you line up your themes and campaigns, you can put them into your planning documents and templates.

Tips for Selecting Strategic Communication Channels and Platforms

A major part of the channel and platform selection process relies on the target audience and stakeholder research. For internal audiences, you’ll be able to simply use text, emails, and internal newsletters for your ‘captive’ audience. When it comes to external audiences and stakeholders, if you’re number one audience is teenagers your channel selection will likely be different than if you’re trying to reach CEOs. You can use purchased data or your own research to determine the media your individual audiences use most.

Try some testing to get to the most appropriate communication channel mix to promote and encourage the specific behavior or outcome you want. If your budget allows, hire a professional PR, advertising, or media firm to help you determine the most streamlined way to get to the right media mix. If outside resources aren’t in your budget, here are some tips on how to strategically choose your marketing channels and platforms. These ideas apply to both internal and external communications channel planning:

Know Your Audience: Do your research on current stakeholder behaviors in multiple channels and determine what media outlets they use and which are most influential.
Experiment: Add channels into the mix slowly, to reach specific audiences and check response rates.
Automate: Use a tool like Hootsuite to add communications based on your schedule. Add and use different channels more frequently as they become more popular.
Listen: With social channels, it’s important that you continue to "listen" and respond in real-time. It’s the only way to gain and keep mindshare.
Evaluate: Use data and your own metrics to see what’s working and what isn’t, and adjust your plan accordingly.

Another consideration is to use marketing resource management (MRM) software. It’s software that helps users manage marketing processes so companies can be more agile in planning, management, and execution on marketing programs and campaigns, all while consistently maintaining your brand image across communication and marketing channels. MRMs usually provide planning, budgeting, and tracking capabilities, as well as the means for managing digital brand assets, workflows, and approval processes. You can find extensive coverage on this topic in this Marketing Resource Management article .

Setting and Measuring Metrics

As mentioned earlier, you need to set clear, measurable goals to ensure that your communication strategy plan is effective -- or to determine if you need to make some changes to reach those goals. That means you need to not only set metrics, but also measure them over time, and at the conclusion of campaigns.

As you develop your communications strategy plan, build-in quantitative measures not just for a final evaluation, but also at interim dates. That way you can assess if your communications efforts are progressing at the right pace. For example, are you amassing more Twitter followers or requests for more information, and meeting business objectives like total sales. As you write your plan, include:

Starting Point Metrics: Identify where you are in your current efforts by the numbers.
Midpoint Metrics: Determine how far you’ve progressed to your goal.
Final Assessment Metrics: Iterate the ultimate objective for your company, campaign, or crisis plan.
Platform Metrics: Set goals for each communications platform. Use web analytics and track your progress to benchmarks.
Budget Metrics: Check results against your total budget regularly (weekly is best) to make sure you’re tracking to your allocated spend.

Raffetto is emphatic about the use of metrics in his plans. “Metrics are a must in communications. Anyone can feel that the program is winning or having an impact, and often that is the case, but at the end of the quarter or year all executives and even board members want hard evidence that the investment in PR and communications made an impact on the top strategic objectives of the company,” says Raffetto. “The only way to show that is with credible metrics. We use a heavy dose of quantitative measures – everything from media impact to video views to domain authority to UTM link tag analytics – and then we also look at more qualitative measures such as Are reporters now reaching out to us for a perspective on breaking news? or Does the CEO get invited to speak at key industry events? These are measurable as well and are built into the metrics in the planning phase.”

Social Media Considerations in a Strategic Communication Plan

The power of the social media ecosystem in reaching consumers and other audiences continues to grow, notes Raffetto. “Social media is indeed important, and is extremely powerful when it’s closely integrated with other communications programs like media campaigns or events. For this reason we do not treat it as a separate program, but rather we layer it into all other programs. So for example, if we are doing a speaker program for a top executive, we will build in a social media component to that,” explains Raffetto. “The tactics will include channel selection, content development, audience identification and engagement, and measurement. Measurement is fairly easy now with all of the analytics tools available. It is fun to see a client's social media program and engagement get supercharged by PR wins like a huge media hit or a keynote address.”

Booher advises, “Far too many people and organizations spray paint on social media. They have no strategy. Therefore, they spend a little time here and a little time there on the various platforms, staying virtually invisible on all of them. Social media experts advise that you formulate a strategy to master one or at most two platforms. Decide where you’ll find your audience and go there. Then master that platform. Use those one or two platforms to drive traffic to your own website — the one place where you actually have control of the traffic and what they see. The tactics on social media are all the magnets you use to put buyers into your funnel on this platform and gradually lead them to your website. Finally, know what you want them to do when they get to your site: Read a blog? Buy a product? Sign up for an ezine? Register for a free webinar? Attend a paid event? The more specific the action you want them to take, the easier to measure your results. Give them a vague action, and you’ll likely have a vague notion of whether you’re succeeding.

Social Media Audit Template

‌ Auditing your metrics monthly and comparing them to the previous month and year helps you understand if your objectives are being met and what you may want to change to accomplish goals. Edit this simple spreadsheet to include all of the social channels and metrics you want to track, and update it when you make any shifts in your social media strategy.

‌ Download Social Media Audit Template

Social Media Marketing Plan Template

This social media marketing plan template and calendar makes the complex planning involved in multiple channels easier. You can gather intelligence about how target audiences respond to content and which sites are sending you the most referrals. Use the data you gather to understand which outlets are most effective, and which days and times to post work best.

Download Social Media Marketing Plan Template

Overall Work and Activity Planning

Putting all the work and necessary activities in a calendar with key communications tasks, budget, and resources goes a long way in delivery on strategy. Highlight specific projects, events or publications that you know need to happen in a particular timeframe.

Communications Strategy Planning Calendar Template

This detailed calendar template provides a way to track annual plans or in a single month snapshot, and helps you work back from upcoming deadlines. Call out metrics at the top of the template, while there is a space to note marketing effectiveness data at the bottom of the spreadsheet. This comprehensive template offers sections for social media, online content, press releases, email, advertising, and more. Adapt the fields to make them appropriate for your organization to more effectively track your weekly and monthly progress.

‌ Download Communications Strategy Planning Calendar Template

Crisis Communication Planning

There are crisis that come out of the blue and some that you can anticipate based on past history or what you know may be coming up in your organization such as a move, a merger, or layoffs. By creating a plan in advance you can do a lot to prepare so your team is ready to handle a completely unforeseen or foreseeable crisis when it happens with a process that’s already in place. The crisis communication template can make sure you’re in control when the (inevitable) crisis occurs.

Crisis Communication Strategy Template

This Crisis Communication Strategy Template will help you identify the crisis communication team, set up responsibilities, identify and train spokespersons, determine the potential crisis, and set up a process and response plan, establish systems, and more.

Download the Crisis Communication Strategy Template

Putting Your Strategic Communications Plan Together

All of the material reviewed so far can seem overwhelming, but like most things, if you take them one step at a time and enlist the help of the right people and technology, you’ll be successful. How do you put all these different aspects together?

The strategic communications plan provided here is a template that you can use to guide your process. There are steps along the way where you should include some of the downloadable templates in this article to lighten the load, and keep communications transparent to team members and management. It will be a living document, like the templates, that change as you learn and assess the process.

9-Step Strategic Communications Plan Template for Word

This template sets the stage for your full strategic communications plan in nine sections:

Identify your mission
Write an executive strategy
Set out your situation analysis
Determine stakeholder and target audience
Create key messages
Select tools and tactics
Set budget
Develop project plans and schedules

Use the template to build your own custom plan. Download the 9-Step Strategic Communications Plan Template

Excel | WORD | PDF

Marketing Plan Template for Excel

This marketing plan template holds the component pieces that go into your overall strategic communications plans. It has sections for media relations, online marketing, trade shows and events, sales campaigns, and branding efforts. Overall objectives are identified along with costs, target market, and you can schedule activities by the week. Adjust the template to include whichever elements are essential to your communications strategy.

Communications and Marketing Budget Plan Template

Use this communications and marketing plan template to display itemized categories by type and channel, the estimated costs, subtotals, and grand totals for each item and a space for additional notations. It’s designed to be easy to understand, so everyone from team members to the C-suite can track where money is going. This template can be used for campaigns or for annual plans.

Download Communications and Marketing Budget Plan Template

Additional Communication Strategy Planning Tools & Resources

Find more templates, books, and professional organizations to start or improve your planning process here.

More Helpful Templates You can always make tasks easier for yourself and your team with easy-to-use templates like these:

To Do List & Progress Monitor Template

Get your team on the same page with a consolidated view of responsibilities across multiple projects and priorities with this comprehensive action tool. Use the template to create transparency as it tracks task progress with Harvey ball symbols, and also flags high-priority items.

‌ Create a To Do List & Progress Monitor Template in Smartsheet

Check out more templates in this 15 Free Task List Templates article.

Project Budget Template

Creating and tracking an accurate budget is the make-or-break factor of managing successful communication plans. Stay on top of budgets with this template, that helps you track labor, material, and fixed costs. You can also monitor the difference between your actual and budgeted amounts for each task.

Download Project Budget Template

Find more useful budget templates for download at Top Excel Budget Templates .

Tactical Marketing Management and Project Team Template for Excel

As you implement your marketing strategy, track tactics that you need to complete to keep your plan and team on schedule and assess progress. This template lets you list your project team, monitor who’s responsible for which tasks, dates, expenses, action, and status every step of the way.

Download Tactical Marketing Plan Template

Find more templates to download in this Free Marketing Plan Templates for Excel article .

Risk Assessment Template

Particularly helpful for crisis communication planning, this template gauges and captures essential information your organization needs to assess potential risk. List and categorize each risk, rate its relative likelihood and severity, and chart all the risks in an aggregated view. Risk can be color-coded to denote risk rankings for a prioritized, at-a-glance view to enable readiness.

Download Risk Assessment Matrix Template Below Excel | Word | PDF | Smartsheet

Find more risk assessment templates here: All The Risk Assessment Matrix Templates You Need .

Glossary of Marketing, PR, and Communication Terms

For those who are new to communications strategy and planning, terminology may be hard to understand. Here are some free, easy to use guides to marketing, PR, and communication terms for you to download and refer to as you develop your communications strategy and plans.

Dictionary of Media and Communications by Marcel Danesi: A comprehensive, 349-page reference to terminology that covers every aspect of media and communications terms.
IUCN Commission on Education and Communication Glossary edited by Frits Hesselink: A handy international guide to terms used in effective communication.
The Oxford Dictionary of Media and Communication by Daniel Chandler and Rod Munday for Oxford University Press: Over 2,200 entries on terms used in communications arranged with A to Z tabs for easy access.

Professional Marketing Organizations

Keep up to date with the latest best practices in communications strategy with information from these professional organizations that cater to communications and marketing professionals:

American Marketing Association (AMA): The AMA provides thought-leadership, research, webinars, technology, and other resources for marketers and academics.
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA): The PRSA provides articles, publications, research, and other resources to communications professionals and students in every industry sector.
Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI): The SMEI is a global association that provides online forums, webinars, courses, and certification for sales and marketing professionals.
International Association of Business Communicators (IABC): The IABC is an international network of communication professionals whose goal is to improve organizational effectiveness through strategic communication and provides articles, podcasts, videos, and more to its members.
The Data and Marketing Association (DMA): Formerly known as the Direct Marketing Association, this organization champions deeper consumer engagement and business value through the innovative and responsible use of data-driven marketing. They provide coursework, information about regulatory impacts, and other resources to members.
Business Marketing Association (BMA): The BMA is geared to B-to-B marketers. They offer training, career development, online resources, research, and more to its membership.

Strategic Communication Planning Books

Some current, in-depth books that detail every aspect of strategy and strategic communications planning:

Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era , by Antony Young. A guide to planning in today’s more sophisticated media landscape.
Crisis Communications: The Definitive Guide to Managing the Message by Steven Fink. A complete toolkit to create communications and business success in the face of crisis.
Crisis Communication: Practical PR Strategies for Reputation Management and Company Survival , edited by Peter Anthonissen. Proactive crisis communication and proper planning guidance.
Simply Communicate: A Business Guide to Strategic Communication by Kristel Keys Running. Steps businesses and managers through the details of communication strategy. After reading the book and following the steps, readers will have a customized and solid organizational communications strategy.
Strategy Builder: How to Create and Communicate More Effective Strategies by Stephen Cummings and Duncan Angwin. An interactive, visual guide that uses practical tips and real world examples to build your optimal communication plan.
Strategy-In-Action: Marrying Planning, People and Performance (The Global Leader Series Book 4) by Thomas D. Zweifel. A holistic approach to the design and execution of strategic process for organizational leaders.
Strategic Public Relations Management: Planning and Managing Effective Communication Campaigns (Routledge Communication Series) . An evidence-based, applied approach to strategic public relations management -- this is an instructional textbook.

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How to write a communication plan (with template and examples)

Communication is one of the product manager’s primary responsibilities. After all, a PM can’t do their job without effectively communicating risks, dependencies, and changes.

How To Write An Effective Communication Plan With Examples

In small companies, communication is somewhat more intuitive and often easier to manage. The problems begin to appear when the company grows.

A bigger company means more teams, more stakeholders, more initiatives, and more of everything. Beyond scale-ups, communication often becomes either too chaotic or too infrequent.

In cases like that, having a robust communication plan can be a life saver. In this guide, we’ll demonstrate how to write a communication plan in six easy steps. You can also use our free communication plan template , which contains both a blank spreadsheet for you to fill out and a practical example to help you get started.

What is a communication plan?

A communication plan is an inspectable artifact that describes what information must be communicated as well as to whom, by whom, when, where, and via what medium that information is to be communicated. In addition, a communication plan outlines how communications are tracked and analyzed.

A communication plan can take various forms. For example, it might take the form of a(n):

Weekly checklist
Spreadsheet
Automated Trello board

In general, a communication plan should be whatever works for you and your team, as long as it allows you to inspect and adapt your approach to communicating with others.

Benefits of a communication plan

Investing time in creating and maintaining a communication plan brings many benefits. A communication plan serves as a(n):

Checklist and reminder

Inspectable artifact, alignment with stakeholders.

Who hasn’t forgotten to inform some critical stakeholder about a recent change/discovery?

Product management is such a fast-paced and dynamic profession that it’s very easy to let small details slip. Unfortunately, it’s these small details that often matter the most.

A written communication plan serves as a checklist that ensures minute details don’t slip too often. Whenever something relevant happens, you can easily refer to your communication plan to double-check whether you’ve connected with everyone who needs to be in the loop.

A tangible communication plan allows product managers to slow down, inspect, and adapt their current processes.

Whenever there’s a communication mishap, they can review what led to it and adjust their approach to communication. A concrete plan makes a vague and sometimes intimidating term such as “communication” more tangible.

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A communication plan, when done well, brings alignment and facilitates input from other stakeholders. It also lays out expectations of how communication is being handled and executed.

If stakeholders feel they aren’t getting all the relevant information, they can quickly check the communication plan to see what they are missing and what is lacking in the communication process that is causing them to miss that information. If they find the communication inadequate, they can share their feedback with the communication plan owner.

It’s easier to facilitate feedback and alignment when something is on paper.

How to create a communication plan in 6 steps

As mentioned above, there are various ways to create a communication plan.

A simple way to write a communication plan is to answer six questions:

What type of information do you produce?
Who should receive that information?
How often should they receive it?
What channels are most appropriate for this type of information?
When is communication done for that type of information?
Who should make sure it happens?

1. What type of information do you produce?

Start by reviewing what information you produce and process.

If you manage roadmaps , you probably produce a lot of information regarding roadmap changes, delays, and anything else that may relate to roadmaps.

If you manage releases, you also produce information regarding the release progress, stage, and anything else that related to releases.

Capture it all.

To make it easier, start with the broader, more general concepts. And if you notice the need for more precision, split them into more detailed communication positions.

2. Who should receive that information?

For a given type of information you produce or process, who should receive it? These are usually people who are:

Direct stakeholders
Dependent on the initiative
Contributing to the initiative

Investing some time in defining the receipts has two main benefits.

First, it ensures you don’t miss a critical person in your communication flow, but it also helps you answer the question of who is not interested in certain information. Over-communication creates noise and should be avoided.

3. How often should they receive it?

You should identify the frequency of updates being sent out depending on the information being shared and which stakeholders are included. Should it be daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly?

You probably won’t nail it at first, but that’s OK. What’s important is to search for a sweet spot between over-communication and under-communication.

Although it might seem excessive at first, finding the right balance will be increasingly important as the amount of and need for communication grows over time.

4. What channels are most appropriate for this type of information?

What medium is most suitable for a given type of information?

For example, it would be silly to inform someone about a mission-critical dependency in a comment under a Jira ticket. At the same time, you shouldn’t spam other people’s Slack with every minor change.

Before sending out an update, ask yourself:

Where would people seek such information?
How fast should it reach the audience?
How critical is it?
Is it a one-sided update or a potential conversation starter?

The answers to these questions will help you find the best channel for the given information piece.

5. When is communication done for that type of information?

Many people fall into the concept trap that once you send out a message, your communication responsibility is over. This is not always the case.

If you send a company-wide FYI update, then yes, your job is probably completed when you press send, but what if you have roadmap changes that impact multiple teams. Shouldn’t you be making sure everyone on those teams are informed?

In cases like that, you can’t say you are done just because you’ve sent a message. You should chase all key stakeholders and ensure that they have read and understood your message to avoid any misconceptions.

Let’s face it: messages sometimes slip. Your job isn’t to send messages, but to ensure everyone is on the same page. It’s not the same thing.

I’m a fan of having a simple definition of done for communication items. Sometimes, it’ll just mean pushing an update. Other times, it might mean getting a signature of approval from another stakeholder.

6. Who should make it happens?

Last but not least, if it’s everyone’s responsibility to make sure communication happens, then it’s no one’s responsibility.

Although the whole team should be responsible for ensuring effective communication, I believe in having a dedicated owner for a given communication stream. The owner can be permanent or rotate every sprint.

If you have communication owners in place, the chance of communication actually taking place increases dramatically.

Communication plan example

Let’s take a look at an example of a communication plan created using the framework I just outlined:

This communication plan can now serve as an artifact for alignment, process improvement, and double-checking if everything is communicated as needed.

Since some of the items in the communication plan happen as needed, it’s imperative to review the artifact on a regular basis. Otherwise, details are bound to slip sooner or later.

Communication plan template

To make it easy to get started with creating your own communication plan, we’ve created a communication plan template for you. Click File > Make a copy to customize the template.

When you start, ask yourself:

What you want to communicate
By what channel
When you consider the communication as done
Who should own the given communication item

Although it may lack in the beginning, use it as an inspectable artifact to improve your communication approach every sprint. I promise you, it’ll make your job as a product manager significantly easier.

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The Communication Strategy Framework

Planning how to communicate clearly.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Nowadays, we communicate with others in many different ways.

For example, we can get our message across face to face, over the phone, by email or IM, or by video call or VoIP. We can also communicate with written reports, workshops, webinars, advertisements, presentations, and speeches.

However, to get the best results from our communications, we need to plan them effectively. Without careful thought and consideration, we can easily confuse our audience or fail to get our message across. This can undermine our credibility and effectiveness.

In this article, we'll look at the Communication Strategy Framework, a simple tool that you can use to organize your messages, remove possible communication barriers, and get the results that you want.

About the Model

Michael and Sandra Rouse developed the Communication Strategy Framework, and published it in their 2001 book, " Business Communications: A Cultural and Strategic Approach ." [1]

The framework guides you through the process of planning and organizing your messages, so that you can avoid communication barriers, increase understanding, and get the response that you want from your audience.

The Communication Strategy Framework consists of four elements that you should consider carefully as you organize and craft your message:

Communicator strategy.
Audience strategy.
Channel strategy.
Message strategy.

You can use the framework to plan many different types of communications, such as phone calls, reports, emails, and presentations.

Using the Framework

To use the Communication Strategy Framework, think carefully about each of the elements below. You can also download our worksheet to help with your planning.

1. Communicator Strategy

First, you need to think about yourself as the "communicator," or the sender of the message. Consider these questions:

Why are you communicating this message?
What results do you want to achieve?
What is your reputation with your audience members, and how much credibility do you have? How should you adjust your message to take account of this?
Does your audience trust you? If not, how could you build trust in your message?
Do you share the same culture and background as your audience? (If not, brush up on your cross-cultural communication skills , and think about how you can ensure that others understand you easily.)

Consider the objective of your communication carefully, as this will determine the best approach to take with the next three elements of the framework. Write a simple but straightforward statement that defines the objective or purpose of your communication. (If you are delivering a training session, see our article on the ABCD Learning Objectives Model – this will help you to refine your objectives statement even further.)

2. Audience Strategy

Next, think about your audience. When you consider the wants, needs, education, and skill levels of your audience members, you can craft a message that matches their interests, expectations, and understanding.

Consider these questions:

Who is your audience?
Are there identifiable sub-groups within it, with differing needs?
What do you know about this person or group?
What do they know about you?
What do they know about this subject?
How will you motivate them?

In some cases, you'll be very familiar with your audience: for example, when you write an email to your boss or colleagues. In other cases, you might not know your audience, such as when you give a presentation to a large group of prospective clients. Write down what you do know about them, and then think about how you can find out more.

Next, think about the different groups within your audience. Use our article on market segmentation to think about how you can address their differing needs.

Consider what your audience members need from you, and how they will benefit from your communication.

3. Message Strategy

Here, you need to think about the style, tone, and structure of your message. Consider these questions:

Is your purpose to persuade, entertain, consult, or inform? What style and tone will best fit your purpose?
Does your message need to be formal or informal, or a subtle mix of both? Consider your audience carefully to answer this question.

When you think about your message, you also need to consider your audience's likely reaction. Do you think your audience will agree with what you say? And are your audience members busy? If so, you might want to take a direct approach. To do this, communicate your main idea upfront, and back it up with supporting arguments or evidence.

Are your audience members likely to disagree with what you have to say? And do they have time to listen to, or read, a longer communication? If so, you might want to take a less direct approach with your message. Include your supporting arguments first, followed by your main point or purpose.

As you craft your message, think about how you can let your audience members know why they should keep listening, and make sure that you finish with a clear, motivating call to action.

If you need to influence your audience in some way, use Yukl and Tracey's positive influencers to choose the best approach to use. Monroe's motivated sequence can also help you to craft an effective message. If you want to draft a written communication, brush up on your writing skills . And, when you need to give a presentation, consider using business storytelling to inspire and motivate your audience.

4. Channel Strategy

In the final element of the framework, you focus on choosing the most effective communication channel to get your message across.

What channel is most appropriate to use for your audience and message?
Do you need to have a record of this communication? (If so, an email can be a better choice than a phone call.)
Is cost or time a consideration?
Is culture a factor in this situation? Remember that people in some cultures prefer face-to-face communication, while others will favor using email.

Keep in mind that the channel you choose can directly affect how well your audience understands your message. If your message is complex, or if others might misunderstand it, choose a channel that allows you to see whether people have grasped the message, and, if necessary, take corrective action.

Our articles on writing effective emails , delivering great presentations , and holding effective meetings have specific strategies that you can follow to make best use of these communication channels.

Use the 7 Cs of Communication to ensure that your message is clear, concise, well-constructed, and error-free.

Michael and Sandra Rouse developed the Communication Strategy Framework and published it in their 2001 book, "Business Communications: A Cultural and Strategic Approach." The framework guides you through the process of planning and organizing your communications, so that you can prepare clear and effective letters, emails, presentations, and speeches.

The framework consists of four elements:

To use the framework, consider each element carefully as you plan your message.

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[1] Rouse, M. and Rouse, S. (2001). ' Business Communications .' United States: South-Western.

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Why a clear communication plan is more important than you think

More often than not, clear communication can make or break successful projects. Clear communication in project management isn’t just about where you should be communicating—it’s also about which team members should be receiving which types of messages.

The good news is, creating an effective communication plan isn’t difficult. All you need to do is define your communication channels and align on when team members should use each. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to set up a communication plan and show you a template so you can create your own.

What is a communication plan?

Sharing a communication plan can give your team clarity about which tools to use when and who to contact with each of those tools. Without a communication plan, you might have one team member trying to ask questions about work in a tool that another team member rarely checks. Rather than being able to clearly communicate and move forward with work, each team member would end up frustrated, confused, and disconnected from the work that matters. Then, if they don’t have clear insight into who is responsible for each channel, they might end up reaching out to an executive stakeholder with questions that person can’t answer. What started out as a simple miscommunication has spiraled into three frustrated team members—and all the while, work isn’t moving forward.

What should a communication plan include?

Your communication plan is your one-stop-shop for your project communication strategy. Team members should be able to use the communication plan to answer project questions like:

What communication channels are we using? What is each channel used for?

When should we communicate in person vs. asynchronously?

What are the project roles? Who is the project manager ? Who is on the project team? Who are the project stakeholders ?

How are important project details, like project status updates, going to be communicated? How frequently will these be shared?

What shouldn’t be included in a communication plan?

A communication plan will help you clarify how you’re going to communicate with your project team and project stakeholders—whether these are internal team members that work at your company, or external stakeholders like customers or contractors.

A communication plan in project management is not a PR plan. This plan will not help you align on your social media strategy, identify a target audience, or establish key messages for different demographics. If you need to build out those plans, consider creating a social media content calendar or a business strategy plan .

The benefits of a communication plan

Obviously clear communication in the workplace is a good thing. But do you really need a written communication plan to do that?

In a word: yes. A good communication plan can help you communicate the right information to the right project stakeholders. Executive stakeholders don’t need to be notified about every project detail—similarly, every project team member might not need to be on a conference call with your external partners. By clarifying where and how you’ll be communicating, you can reduce the guessing game and unblock your team.

Less app switching

We recently interviewed over 13,000 global knowledge workers and found that the average knowledge worker switches between 10 apps up to 25 times per day. Instead of focusing on high-impact work or even collaborating effectively with their team members, knowledge workers are sinking hours into simply trying to figure out where they should be communicating.

A communication plan can eliminate this guessing game. For example, if your team knows that you only communicate about work in a work management tool , they can search for key information there—instead of digging through document folders, Slack messages, and multiple email chains. Similarly, when you know that a team member is only tangentially working on the project—and is only being looped in during high-level status reports—you won’t bother them with a question about when the next project deliverable is due.

We have created communication guidelines around what software or what tools are best for what. Asana is for action, Slack is for quick responses or answers to things that are floating around. Email is more official and mostly external facing. By doing that, and creating the proper communications guidance, it really helps reduce the noise.”

Increased collaboration

Team collaboration isn’t an effortless process that happens by itself—it’s a skill that you and your team have to build. One part of creating effective team collaboration is clarifying your team’s communication conventions. That’s because a big barrier to effective collaboration is feeling comfortable communicating—especially if you work on a remote or distributed team . If your team feels unsure because they’re still trying to figure out how or where to communicate, they won’t be fully comfortable talking to one another.

Your communication plan is a chance to clarify where team members should be communicating. Depending on the level of detail, you can also include when team members should be communicating—and clarify team conventions towards setting “Do not disturb” mode or snoozing notifications.

By providing these guidelines, you’re effectively removing one of the biggest barriers to easy communication and collaboration between team members. When team members know where to communicate—and just as importantly, where not to communicate—they can be confident they’re sending the right message at the right time.

Less duplicative work

Currently, knowledge workers spend 60% of their time on work about work like searching for documents, chasing approvals, switching between apps, following up on the status of work, and generally doing things that take time away from impactful work. Part of this work about work is not knowing where things should be communicated.

If team members don’t have a clear sense of where information is shared—things like your project plan or project timeline —then they’ll have to dig through multiple tools or ask several team members just to find the right information. As a result, team members who are unclear about where they should be communicating about work also have a harder time simply finding existing work.

Work about work leads to more manual, duplicative work and less clarity overall. In fact, according to the Anatomy of Work Index , we spend 13% of our time—236 hours per year—on work that’s already been completed. By sharing your communication plan, you can give your team clarity into exactly where work lives, so they don’t have to spend all that time finding it themselves.

How to write a communication plan

A communication plan is a powerful tool—but it’s also relatively easy to create. You can create a communication plan in four steps.

1. Establish your communication methods

The first step to creating a communication plan is to decide where your team will communicate—and about what. This includes when to use which tools and when to communicate live vs. asynchronously. Live, synchronous communication is communication that happens in real time. Conversely, asynchronous communication is when you send a message without expecting someone to reply right away. We all use asynchronous communication every day without realizing it—most notably, every time we send an email.

As you define your communication plan, identify what to use each tool for. For example, you might decide to use:

Email to communicate with any external stakeholders.

Slack for synchronous communication about day-to-day updates and quick questions.

Asana to communicate asynchronously about work, like task details, project status updates , or key project documents.

Zoom or Google Meet for any team meetings, like project brainstorms or your project post mortem.

2. Align on communication cadence

Now that you know where you’ll be communicating, you also have to identify how frequently you’ll be communicating. Your communication cadence is your action plan for updating different stakeholders about different project details.

For example, you might decide to schedule:

Weekly project status updates posted in Asana to all project stakeholders and sponsors.

Monthly project team meetings to unblock any work or brainstorm next steps.

Asynchronous project milestone updates in Asana as needed.

3. Add a plan for stakeholder management

Running a successful project often depends on getting stakeholder support and buy-in. At the beginning of the project, you’ll do this during the project kickoff meeting —but it’s also critical to maintain stakeholder support throughout your project.

Take some time as you’re drafting your communication plan to detail when to communicate with each project stakeholder, and about what. Some people, like your key project team members, will be communicating about this project regularly—maybe even daily. Other project stakeholders may only need to be looped in during project status updates or maybe just at the final readout.

By listing out how you’ll be managing communication with stakeholders, you can ensure they’re being contacted at the right time about the right things. The communication they recieve should answer questions at their level of detail and with a focus on business results and overall, high-level impact.

4. Share your communication plan and update it as needed

Once you’ve created your communication plan, it’s time to share it with your project team. Make sure your communication plan is accessible in your central source of truth for all project information. We recommend using Asana to track all project communication and work, so you can talk about work where you’re working.

If any changes impact your project communication plan, make sure you update it and communicate those changes. That way, team members always have access to the most up to date information.

Example communication plan

Communication plan template

Description of communication.

What type of communication is it?

How often will you be communicating?

Which tool will you be using? Is this synchronous or asynchronous communication?

Who is receiving this communication?

Who is in charge of sending out this communication?

Good communication starts with a communication plan

Clear communication can help you send the right message at the right time. Empower effortless collaboration while also ensuring every team member is being looped in at the right times. That way, your team can spend less time communicating about work and more time on high-impact work.

Related resources

How to use a feasibility study in project management

How to track utilization rate and drive team profitability

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

Smooth product launches are simpler than you think

How to Write a Strategic Communication Plan Template

May 1, 2022

Content Manager at SocialBee

We know why you are here, and we are prepared with both a communications plan template and a guide that will help you every step of the way.

Communication plans are great strategies that will not only take your branding objectives to the next level , but will also help you manage PR crises without damaging your image.

In this material, we will walk you through the benefits of a communication plan template and we will show you what are the steps you need to take in order to build your very own communication strategy. Are you ready?

Streamline your business communication planning with our easy-to-use template.

What Is a Communications Plan?

Communications plans are documents that outline the messages a business promotes, the audience meant for those messages, and the channels of communication.

A strategic communications plan is a way to organize all your company’s messages in one place, define your goals , and ensure you maintain a consistent and positive image.

Moreover, it works as a foundation that will help with managing certain crises your company might face, pitching new ideas to your stakeholders, creating an effective communication strategy for a product launch, and more.

The Benefits of a Communication Plan

Before we get into how to write a strategic communication plan, let’s see how such a document can benefit your business.

Here are the advantages of a communications strategy plan:

It improves client and stakeholder management
It defines the communication process
It creates a positive brand image

1. It Improves Client and Stakeholder Management

A well-written communication plan will help you improve the level of communication with both internal stakeholders and external audicences, as you will be able to convey your message through multiple channels.

2. It Defines the Communication Process

By having a communication plan, you will also be able to set communication objectives for your company and assess progress.

Writing a clear communication plan will help you identify:

What you need to communicate
How you should share your message
Who is the recipient
Which channels are best for sharing certain messages

Also, this way, you will discover the unique characteristics of your intended audience. Consequently, you will understand their point of view better than ever before, and communicate with them more effectively.

3. It Creates a Positive Brand Image

An effective communication plan has a positive impact on your company’s image because it makes sure that every message you share with the public is correct, on-brand, and consistent on every communication platform.

Additionally, with the help of a communication plan, you can handle crises much more effectively. In fact, big brands have a designated crisis communication team ready to go in case of a social media controversy.

Having a crisis communication plan and planning ahead of time for emergency situations will allow you to manage the public perception better. Also, rushing your response in critical situations without clearly thinking it through will allow other mistakes to slip through and make the situation worse.

How to Write a Communications Plan

Now that you know what a communication plan is and how it can benefit your business, let’s get into the real reason why you are here — learning how to write an effective communications plan.

These are the steps you need to take to write a marketing communications plan:

Audit Your Current Communications Strategy
Set Communication Goals
Define Your Target Audience
Develop Your USP and Mission Statement
Find the Best Communication Channels for Your Marketing Efforts
Assign Roles to Your Team Members
Identify Your Key Stakeholders
Write Down Key Dates for Your Communication Strategies
Craft Key Messages for Your Audience
Outline Your Communication Methods and Campaigns
Put Your Communication Plan in Action
Monitor and Adjust Your Communication Strategy

1. Audit Your Current Communications Strategy

Before you create your communication plan, you need to run a situational analysis of your current communication strategy.

Here is what you need to evaluate when it comes to your marketing communication strategy:

Communication channels – List all the different channels you communicate on both online and offline with your audiences (partners, clients, project stakeholders, customers, etc.).
Communication materials – Make an inventory of all your marketing materials. Include anything from flyers to social media graphics, digital brochures , as well as your permanent branding guidelines (color scheme, fonts, logos, etc.).
Tone of voice and communication style – How would you describe your communication style? You can use several adjectives to define it.
Results and performance – Which messages and communication platforms had the best/worst results. Add screenshots and links to understand the situation better.

To gather all this relevant information, you can go to the analytics you have for each communication channel, send surveys to your customers, partners, and stakeholders, and hold in-person meetings with your project team.

In addition, you can perform a SWOT analysis and discover both internal and external advantages and disadvantages:

👍 Strengths – Define what you do well, your best resources, and the aspects that give you an advantage over your competitors.

👎 Weaknesses – Focus on the critics you receive from others, the resources you lack compared to your competitors, and the areas that need improvement.

📈 Opportunities – Identify the opportunities and market trends that will allow you to transform your strengths into growth opportunities.

❌ Threats – Discover the external factors that can prevent your business from growing.

2. Set Communication Goals

Turn your business goals into specific communication goals. This way, your business needs will guide the way you think and write your communication goals. As a result, your chances of staying on track and enhancing your company’s performance will increase.

Your communication goals need to provide perspective and direction for you and your team. So, make sure you offer them all the details they might need.

When in doubt, respect the SMART goals structure:

S pecific – State what you want to accomplish and how you plan to do it.
M easurable – Mention how you plan to measure your progress.
A chievable – Be realistic, and set goals that are achievable based on your company’s resources.
R elevant – Write communication goals that align with your business needs.
T ime-bound – Keep your team accountable by setting a clear deadline for your goals.

Here is an example of a SMART communication goal:

“Improve customer satisfaction in the next 6 months by replying to every review, comment, email, and message within 24 hours.”

To measure success, you will have to check the reviews and feedback you receive as a result of your new initiative.

3. Define Your Target Audience

In order to write effective key messages, you first need to understand your target audiences . This doesn’t only include your customers but also your employees, partners, investors, government officials, media outlets, and more.

As a result of your research, you will be able to craft perfectly tailored messages while also discovering their preferred communication channel. Feel free to ask for feedback and suggestions that will improve their experience as well as your collaboration. Also, keep an eye on the way they communicate and try to match their approach.

When it comes to customers, you can generate multiple demographic details straight from your SocialBee dashboard. Based on the information you gather, you can create detailed buyer personas — fictional characters with the traits of different segments of your target market.

SocialBee audience demographics dashboard

Get information about your audience from a single dashboard.

Start your 14-day free SocialBee trial now!

In this way, you structure all the audience data and make it easier for you and your team to remember.

Here is what a buyer persona should contain:

Demographic information
Behavioral traits
Pain points
Buying habits

The goal is to reach the right people with customized messages that will resonate with them.

4. Develop Your USP and Mission Statement

Not all businesses are built the same. And this is a good thing.

Your unique selling proposition is very important for your communication plan, especially when it comes to your promotional content. Why? Because you have to rely on that unique quality to differentiate your business from the competition and give your customers a reason to purchase from you.

To develop your USP, you first need to answer the following questions:

What do you provide that your competition doesn’t?
What customer issue do you solve through your business?
Why should your customers choose you and not your competitors?

Furthermore, while your USP works as a way to make your brand stand out from the crowd, your mission statement provides meaning and purpose to your company.

A great mission statement reflects your customers’ values and provides an additional reason to invest in your products.

Image source

Let’s say you sell sweets. Your USP is that you don’t use sugar in your products. So, in your mission statement, you could state that through your business, you aim to provide healthy and delicious dessert alternatives and improve your customers’ lifestyles without compromising the taste of your sweets.

5. Find the Best Communication Channels for Your Marketing Efforts

It’s not only essential to know how to communicate with your audience, but also to discover the channel that you should use to reach them. Moreover, for better results, you need to keep your communication separate.

For instance, with your stakeholders, you can plan online or in-person meetings and provide project reports regularly. Whereas, with media outlets, you can move your communication to email. All you need is to have the contact information of several relevant journalists and nurture your media relationships on this channel.

The same goes for the rest of your audience segments. The more you customize your communication to fit your audience’s needs, the more success you will have.

However, when it comes to your customers, you have more options. You can get creative with your communication when promoting your business.

These are the main communication channels you can use to connect with your customers:

Content marketing
Search enginge optimization
Email marketing
Influencer marketing
Affiliate marketing

A. Content Marketing

Your communication plan wouldn’t be complete without including your content marketing strategy.

In fact, did you know that 70% of customers would rather learn about a business from an article or blog post than from advertisements? So, it’s safe to assume that content marketing is quite a big deal.

This marketing strategy is used to attract, engage, and maintain customers by creating and distributing relevant content (articles, videos, social media posts).

Apart from this, content marketing helps businesses establish themselves as credible and authoritative sources of information, build brand awareness and stay top-of-mind.

So, make sure you include your social media platforms, your blog, and other content creation platforms (Youtube, Udemy, etc.) and give details about your communication strategy on all of them.

Don’t forget that with SocialBee you can create, edit, schedule, and share content on all your social media platforms from one user-friendly dashboard.

Connect all your social media profiles with SocialBee to share content faster and easier than ever before.

Besides, SocialBee can generate automatic social media posts whenever you publish a new article, making the most out of your content marketing strategy.

Don’t miss out on a 14-day free SocialBee trial !

SocialBee: Your AI-powered social media management tool

B. search engine optimization.

To optimize your communication plan and make sure your customers see your content, you must perform search engine optimization. Statistics show that 68% of website traffic is generated by search engines, a great insight for businesses.

A good practice is to make a list of all the keywords your audience may use to search your products and services and add them to your communication plan. As a result, you will have them ready to use whenever you create content for Google.

Make sure to use keywords and key phrases that match your customers’ search intent, and combine both short-tail and long-tail keywords into your strategy.

Moreover, add them to your titles, headings, meta descriptions, image alt text, and body text.

C. Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to not only generate new leads, but also nurture your relationship with your existing customers. You should also know that email marketing has an average ROI of $36 for every dollar spent.

It’s an essential part of your communication plan, so ensure you create a messaging strategy that will gain you more website traffic and keep your audience in the loop regarding company news, promotions, and newly posted blog articles.

D. Influencer Marketing

Amplify your messaging strategy with influencer marketing .

This marketing practice is used to generate brand awareness, gain trust, and improve sales.

The key is to find relevant influencers from your industry that your audience looks up to.

Aside from that, you need to pick people that fit your image and share the same values if you want influencer collaborations to work. As a result, you will have a partnership that seems genuine and addresses the right audience.

Make a list of online personalities that you could collaborate with, and add them to your communication plan in the timeframes when you assume you will need a boost in visibility and sales.

E. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another practice you can use to share your message with a larger audience. It involves paying other bloggers to promote your business on their website through link insertions, product/service reviews, and articles.

Besides, it’s an affordable way to generate traffic, boost sales and brand awareness, and build authority within your industry.

6. Assign Roles to Your Team Members

You know your audience, and you picked the communication channels you will use, so it’s time to assign some roles to your internal communications team members.

For example, when it comes to communicating with media channels, you will need to assign a team member to prepare press releases and keep in touch with journalists.

Make sure you add your key team members along with their roles in the communication plan. This is useful for everyone on the team because:

They know what their responsibilities are ahead of time.
They know who to go to in case they need help or information.

7. Identify Your Key Stakeholders

As a business, you will have to run and manage multiple projects. And for some of them, you need the support of your stakeholders for your communication method to be successful.

As you can imagine, this means that you need to maintain a fruitful and transparent relationship with your stakeholders.

This is why you should add them to your communication plan. You should also include all your project deliverables, stakeholder information, and the main ways you plan to keep in contact.

8. Write Down Key Dates for Your Communication Strategies

Every business has peak moments throughout the year when their sales increase and the demand for their product rises, like flower shops during Valentine’s Day.

Some of them are obvious, while others require a little more digging through the data. So, start looking at your sales history from the past year and identify your most profitable intervals.

With this information, you can adjust your communication planning and improve the way you communicate with your customers. Plan some promotions, create new email campaigns, run ads , and basically do anything that can increase the visibility of your business.

Furthermore, you should also research holidays or international celebrations you can use to promote your brand.

Acess the calendar template and start planning your holiday posts with ease.

Social media calendar with holidays by SocialBee

9. Craft Key Messages for Your Audience

For this step, you have to keep your audience in mind at all times. It’s essential that you create key messages that fit the needs and desires of your customers.

To customize your messages accordingly, you need to answer the next questions:

What should your audience know about your company?
What language and communication style would your audience prefer?
What are the main benefits you should highlight?
What values resonate with your customers?

Make separate sections for each segment of your audience and add your key messages into your communication plan.

We advise you to create a messaging matrix in order to define your communication strategy for each. This requires you to separate your audience into segments and create categories of key messages and channels you will use for that group.

For instance, let’s say you sell skincare products and your two main target audiences are young girls between 14 and 20 and women between 30 and 45. The girls encounter problems like acne and dry skin, while the women see signs of aging such as wrinkles and depigmentation.

So you decide to address their issues and promote products that will provide a solution. With the girls, you can communicate on Instagram and TikTok, while with the women you can go for platforms like Facebook.

10. Outline Your Communication Methods and Campaigns

Your action plan is the meat of your communication strategy.

In order to establish the main activities of your communication plan, you first have to follow these three steps:

Align your communication plan with your marketing calendar
Create communication campaigns
Plan activities to achieve your communication goals

A. Align Your Communication Plan With Your Marketing Calendar

Take a look at your marketing calendar , and find out what your marketing team has planned to improve your company’s performance. Then create your customer communication strategy to increase the results of those marketing initiatives.

B. Create Communication Campaigns

To organize all your marketing activities and keep track of your progress, you must plan different communication campaigns throughout the year.

This is what you need to establish when creating communication campaigns:

A theme or a goal that provides purpose and direction.
Strategic activities that will help you achieve your goals.
Clear dates for the beginning and the end of your campaigns.

C. Plan Activities to Achieve Your Communication Goals

The activities you include in your communications plan should be aligned with your internal and external communication goals. After all, you want to accomplish them in a certain time frame.

That being said, your communication tactics should deal with the following aspects:

Where will you share your message
How will you communicate it
When/how often will you communicate

11. Put Your Communication Plan in Action

Now that you included all the necessary elements in your communication plan, it’s time for action.

It’s a good idea to share your plan with your team and go over it together to ensure that everybody is on the same page before you implement it.

12. Monitor and Adjust Your Communication Strategy

Your communication plan is a work in progress, it’s not a finished product. So, establish a few monitoring tactics that will allow you to track your success and identify mistakes that affect your business’ growth.

Gather all your analytics, create reports, and hold meetings with your team to gain feedback and find solutions for potential issues. You should also use the communication goals you previously set to find out if you are on the right track.

Communication Plan Examples

To give you a better idea about how you should structure your strategy, we prepared three examples you can take inspiration from:

A project management communication plan from VENNGAGE
A strategic communication plan from Lean Methods Group
A communication plan example from TemplateLAB

First, we have a project management communication plan from VENNGAGE . You can see that it has a deadline, an assigned project manager, business objectives, tools, audience information, and messaging frequency. Also, the nice colorful design is a plus.

The next communication plan template is from Lean Methods Group , and it provides details about:

Media or vehicle
Assigned team member
Feedback mechanism

This last example is a communications plan template from TemplateLAB that contains information about audience segments, key messages, means of communication, and deadlines for each initiative.

Although these are great documents you can use in your communication plan creation process, we have an alternative that will save you hours of work.

So, make sure you access our free template below, make a copy, and add your magical touch.

Make the Most Out of Your Communication Plans

Now that we went through what a communication plan is, its benefits, and the necessary creation process, we reached the end of this article. However, it’s only the beginning of your work.

But don’t worry, our template is waiting for you, ready to aid in your business strategies and give you a head start on the competition. Just access it below and let us know if you enjoyed our communication plan example!

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10 communication plan templates—and how to write your own

There's a warning on the box my steam iron came in that says, "Do not iron clothes while wearing them."

This gave me pause for a few minutes, but it got me thinking about the kind of lawsuit that prompted lawyers to include an otherwise obvious warning on the box and the kind of crisis communication plan that came to exist in the aftermath.

Add that to the "pudding will get hot when heated" warning and the trademark "shower cap fits only one head" disclaimer, and you've got yourself an era in which communication plans are not only a helpful organizational tool but a very necessary one.

Successfully running a company requires clear communication across the board: with employees, customers, investors, and any other stakeholders. Any gap in communication can lead to difficulties that range from minor project blips to absolute disaster. And while they're necessary for crisis management, communication plans have plenty of other uses beyond ensuring your consumer doesn't give themselves third-degree burns.

Table of contents:

What is a communication plan?

A communication plan is your blueprint for delivering key information to appropriate stakeholders. It outlines the information that needs to be communicated, who it's meant for, the channel it's delivered through, and the folks in charge of it to ensure clear, consistent, and purposeful communication.

This document can look different depending on what it's used for. Here are some examples to give you an idea:

If I were creating a crisis communication plan for the unlikely event that someone irons their shirt while wearing it, I'd consider all the steps we'd have to take to avoid scrutiny and legal issues, like seeking medical attention, designating a spokesperson to represent our company, or press release strategies to address the issue. (I'd also consider whether the box should come with a logical analysis puzzle the user needs to solve before they can open it, but that's just me trying to fix the world one steam iron at a time.)

A marketing communication plan plays a different role. It's designed to outline responsibilities and initiatives within the grand scope of the marketing strategy to keep teams aligned and informed. One initiative I'd underline twice for our steam iron product would be to produce marketing imagery that clearly demonstrates how to iron a shirt—i.e., on an ironing board, not a body.

A product launch communication plan helps keep everyone on the same page regarding brand messaging, intended effects, and progress throughout the launch. Let's take Apple as an example. They're known for their meticulously planned and executed product launches. Their communication strategy involves creating anticipation through teaser campaigns, leveraging secrecy to build excitement, and hosting live events to unveil new products.

Bottom line: communication plans run the gamut. When it comes to format, some plans may be in a table format, outlining talking points and deadlines. Others may contain more of a narrative, meant to inform and update the reader on how a situation is being handled.

You can use a communication plan for both external and internal communication. An employee communication plan, for example, is only meant for your team's eyes. On the other hand, public relations communication plans can be used internally and can also be shared with relevant third parties for outreach and marketing purposes.

Communication plan templates

A communication plan is that one bookmark every employee clicks at the beginning of their day until they associate its main page with the smell of coffee.

Knowing what it is and why it matters is one thing, but understanding the different ways you can use a communication plan is another. Since there are so many different types of plans, I've put together a few templates to highlight the differences. Pick your (well-labeled) poison.

1. Marketing communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's marketing communication plan template showing the person or team in charge of the project, tasks, timeline, communication channels, audience, and notes in a dark orange bar the top for each target audience on the left side

This communication plan outlines your marketing initiatives for each audience. It tracks relevant information, including the person or team in charge of the project, tasks, timeline, communication channels, audience, and notes.

It also organizes this information based on each aspect of your marketing strategy, whether it's targeting existing clients, potential leads, investors, events, or any PR third parties.

2. Crisis communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's crisis communication plan template with places to fill in information about the crisis management team and a summary of the predefined crisis communication strategy

No organization is immune to unexpected and challenging situations that can potentially harm its reputation and operations. This communication plan outlines a systematic approach to addressing crises, including key team members, their responsibilities, communication channels, and the predefined strategy.

It should include clear guidelines for rapid response, methods for updating stakeholders, and ways to mitigate potential damage to the organization's image. The plan should always outline the key crisis management team, their roles and responsibilities, procedures for identifying the crisis, and how to work with media outlets and external entities.

3. Internal communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's internal communication plan template with places to fill in a summary of the plan, key contacts, and communication objectives

This communication plan is designed to ensure employees receive timely and relevant information, have clear visibility of organizational goals, and stay informed about key developments within the organization.

It includes details on communication channels, such as newsletters, meetings, and virtual seminars. Typically, it outlines how the leadership team communicates with employees, how frequently they can expect updates, and methods for gathering feedback to enhance internal communication across the board.

4. Social media communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's social media communication plan template with places to fill in information about the plan summary, key contacts, and communication objectives

A social media communication plan guides a company's strategy in utilizing social media platforms for its communication goals. It's important for building a strong online presence, engaging with your target audience, and managing your company's reputation in the digital world.

To make the most of your social media communication plan, define the target audience on each platform, outline KPIs for measuring success, and establish helpful guidelines that can tie into your crisis communication plan and leverage social media in case of an emergency.

5. Change management communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's change management communication plan template with places to fill in information about the plan summary, key contacts, and communication objectives

The team's going to need an explanation and a plan of action now that Janice is walking down the office toward the door marked "manager" with a big smile on her face.

Its goal is to facilitate a smooth transition and should always include clear messaging regarding the reasons for the change, the anticipated benefits, and how this could affect employees. It outlines the timeline for the change, strategies for addressing concerns, available communication channels, and any feedback regarding the process.

6. Non-profit communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's nonprofit communication plan template with places to fill in information about the plan summary, key contacts, and communication objectives

Non-profits operate differently from other organizations, and their communication plans reflect that. The document effectively conveys the non-profit's cause, engages stakeholders, and develops support.

Since it's designed to build awareness, foster donor relationships, and maintain a level of transparency about the organization's impact, a non-profit communication plan should include well-crafted messaging that aligns with the org's values, outlines the strategy for reaching and mobilizing donors, and plans how to make the most of communication channels such as social media, newsletters, and events.

For a unique touch that sets your non-profit communication plan apart, emphasize storytelling to humanize your cause and connect with your audience on an emotional level. For example, you might include an initiative that triggers an automatic email when a donor registers or makes a contribution—something that reflects their impact on the cause.

7. Product launch communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's product launch communication plan template with places to fill in information about the plan summary, key contacts, and product details

To take it a step further, include messaging that addresses potential challenges and opens up the opportunity to receive feedback and gauge your customers' response to the launch.

8. Public relations communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's PR communication plan template with places to fill in information about the plan summary, key contacts, and communication objectives

This communication plan is ideal for organizations that want to manage their brand reputation and build relationships with the public. Your brand image is an important aspect of business that can affect operations on every level, and nurturing it requires strategic communication, especially with media and public inquiries. You want the public eye to see you in your nice, freshly-ironed shirt.

A public relations communication plan includes key messaging, a media relations strategy, and a calendar of planned PR initiatives, as well as goals, target audiences, and metrics for monitoring the success of your PR efforts.

9. Employee communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's employee communication plan template with places to fill in information about the plan summary, key contacts, and internal communication objectives

Any organization with a team bigger than six people can face major communication challenges, to say nothing of companies that employ staff in the hundreds and thousands. Company news, updates, policies, and initiatives that employees need to be aware of can be difficult to disseminate properly.

Sure, you can take your chances on a company-wide email, but it'll likely end up buried unopened somewhere in everyone's inbox, and you'll be standing there with the corporate equivalent of eating mango-scented shampoo.

An employee communication plan helps foster organizational transparency and workplace alignment within your team. It'll contribute to your company culture and enhance your employees' sense of belonging and connection to company goals.

This plan includes channels for internal communication as well as a content strategy that touches on employees' needs and concerns. While an internal communication plan focuses on the company's business goals, an employee communication plan addresses the company's internal development initiatives.

10. Event communication plan

Screenshot of Zapier's event communication plan template with places to fill in information about the plan summary, key contacts, and communication objectives

This communication plan guides your organization's efforts surrounding an event, ensuring effective promotion, coordination, and engagement. It's useful for managing the flow of information before, during, and after an event.

The plan includes key messaging, the timeline for the event's communication activities, strategies for putting channels like social media and email marketing to use, and how to properly approach inquiries and feedback from event attendees.

How to write a communication plan

Each type of communication plan contains a different set of elements, but the process of putting a communication plan together, regardless of its purpose, remains the same.

1. Set communication goals

I hate sounding like every therapist ever, but communication goals are very important. If your roommate doesn't understand that your scream of pain from the other room means you might have accidentally ironed a shirt while wearing it, help isn't coming, and your room will smell like barbeque.

If I were ironing a shirt, I'd outline my goal for a smooth, freshly-ironed shirt free of wrinkles, and I'd prepare for that by neatly placing the shirt, being conscious of those pesky corners, and keeping it nice and aligned before getting started. In the same vein, If I were writing a communication plan that focuses on brand awareness, I'd outline goals for social media campaigns and content marketing strategies. I'd aim to increase user engagement on each social media platform by a certain percentage, increasing visibility, ad clicks, and interaction with my brand.

Clear communication goals give your organization a sense of direction and allow your team to accurately measure success, making adjustments based on tangible results.

2. Identify the audience

Each audience you're trying to reach through your communication plan will have its own unique expectations and concerns. The plan and the message within need to align with the audience's values and interests.

If you're writing for investors, the plan needs to outline your communication goals for them specifically, touching on relevant topics and important points. It would also designate how the information will be conveyed, by whom, and how to move forward if any variables were to shift.

Who's telling the board that a customer ironed their shirt while wearing it?

A good practice is to segment your audience and create detailed personas to ensure your message is not only read but understood and embraced.

3. Outline key messages

The key information you're distributing through your communication plan is a delicate balance between the organization's goals and resonance with the audience.

For example, a product launch communication plan doesn't really need your 25-year company trajectory outlined and explained. The key information here would pertain to the product itself, the process for the launch, steps to take, tasks to perform, and the timeline for the entire project.

Make your messages clear, concise, and compelling to leave a lasting impression.

4. Choose communication channels

Outline which communication channels are best suited to execute your plan. For example, an employee communication plan should utilize private internal channels like meetings, internal platforms, or emails. Product launch communication plans should leverage external channels as well, like websites, social media, newsletters, and press releases.

Choose communication channels that fit the plan and can be integrated for a cohesive communication strategy that aligns with both your company's goals and the audience's preferences. Ask yourself:

Who's meant to read this?

How can I reach them?

Is this private internal communication or is it meant for public distribution?

Which channel would have the best visibility for my audience?

5. Create a timeline

For the plan to be effective on any level, you need to outline its execution in a detailed timeline that sets the start and end dates of each initiative or item on the document.

Details such as specific dates for key events, launches, and regular updates anchor the plan and facilitate a proactive approach. The timeline is your audience's visual roadmap, and it is handy for allocating resources when you're executing your communication plan.

6. Allocate resources

Putting the plan into action will require resources like budgets and staffing needs. Even time is a resource that needs to be considered. For example, your budget should account for advertising costs, materials, technology investments, and communication channels.

Allocating resources as soon as the timeline is clear ensures the communication plan runs smoothly and delivers the intended message across all initiatives.

7. Designate responsibilities

If you run into an unexpected crisis situation while at the helm of an organization, even the most detailed communication plan won't make a difference if no one knows what they're supposed to be doing.

Designate responsibilities and outline who owns which task so that when the plan goes into action, your team can just refer to the document to know who's taking care of each task, who to reach out to, and what their part in the operation is.

This is important even in non-crisis situations. Let's say you're launching a new tech product. Your plan should designate your marketing director as responsible for presenting the new product concept and strategy to the company's executive board. It should also designate your marketing coordinators as responsible for any workshops or seminars for external partners like retailers and distributors.

8. Create contingency plans

Always prepare for the unlikely. Create contingency plans to deal with challenges that might come up when you're executing your plan. What should the team do in the case of negative public reactions or technical difficulties? Who's taking charge of directing efforts in each aspect? How do you address potential issues should they arise? How do you pivot or proceed if you don't achieve your goals?

Be prepared for gaps in the execution, and outline proactive responses to bring the plan back on track.

9. Set metrics for evaluation

Measurement and evaluation are key for the development of your communication plan. You want to track and gauge how well the efforts outlined in your plan are performing.

You can monitor public perception and sales volume before and after implementing your crisis communication plan, or you can monitor KPIs like audience engagement, reach, and conversion rates when your new marketing plan goes into effect. In the case of internal and employee communication plans, you can monitor the change in processes and how it affects your team's efficiency and comfort levels.

Leverage your communication channels to identify these metrics and areas for improvement, so you can keep adjusting your plan as you go.

10. Perform testing and gather feedback

While testing and gathering feedback are encouraged throughout the process, this relates more to testing your communication plan before you launch it.

For example, you can test how effective your communication plan is and how well it would be received through focus groups, pilot programs, or even internal experimentation.

Once you have feedback from your target audience, you'll be better positioned to refine your messaging and its presentation, and address pitfalls before you execute the plan.

Communication plan essentials

You don't want your communication plan to be just another document in your arsenal of organizational tools. The goal is to make it a piece of your strategy that actively contributes to better communication and company-wide transparency. In order to write an effective communication plan, here are some essential points to consider:

Monitor and adjust: Keep an eye on the plan's performance. Make efforts to adapt based on emerging trends, feedback, and unforeseen challenges.

Report and review: Set KPIs and review them to gauge the effectiveness of the communication plan and better prepare for future strategies.

Consistency and long-term planning: Maintain and encourage consistency in your messaging and plan for the long term. Align initiatives with your long-term communication goals.

You can launch exceptional initiatives with a communication plan template and set a unique process that's invaluable for your company's strategy in marketing, PR, change management, and crisis situations. The right plan can make your operations smoother, a bit like a steam iron would your shirt if you're conscious enough to not turn yourself into an ironing board.

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Communication Strategies: Explained with Types & Examples

A communication strategy is a plan that outlines how an organization or individual will communicate with its target audience. It includes a set of goals and objectives, key messages, communication channels, tactics, and metrics to measure the success of the communication efforts.

A communication strategy is designed to help an organization achieve its communication goals, whether to inform, educate, persuade, or engage its target audience. It can be used for various purposes, such as promoting a new product or service, building brand awareness, managing a crisis, or influencing public opinion.

Effective communication strategies are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of the target audience and take into account the broader social, cultural, and political context in which they operate. They also rely on various communication channels, such as social media, email, traditional media, events, and advertising, to reach the intended audience.

How to design a communication strategy

Designing a communication strategy involves several steps that should be followed to ensure the strategy is effective and meets the organization’s objectives. Here are the general steps you can follow:

Define your objectives: Start by defining the objectives of your communication strategy. Determine what you want to achieve with the communication strategy. Objectives can include increasing brand awareness, customer engagement, or sales.
Identify your target audience: Identify the audience you want to reach with your communication strategy. Consider their demographics, interests, behaviors, and communication preferences.
Develop key messages: Develop key messages that will resonate with your target audience. These messages should be clear, concise, and memorable.
Determine communication channels: Determine the communication channels you will use to reach your target audience. These include social media, email marketing, website content, print materials, and other channels.
Create a content plan: Develop a content plan outlining the content types you will create for each communication channel. Consider the format, tone, and style of each piece of content.
Establish a timeline: Develop a timeline for the execution of your communication strategy. This timeline should include key milestones and deadlines.
Evaluate and adjust: Evaluate the effectiveness of your communication strategy regularly and adjust as needed. Consider feedback from your target audience and analyze the impact of your communication efforts on your objectives.

Barnlund’s transactional model of communication with Example

Remember, an effective communication strategy is tailored to the needs and preferences of your target audience. Following these steps, you can develop a communication strategy that effectively communicates your message and achieves your objectives.

By the way, to communicate our strategy effectively within the team, we all need a robust collaboration platform. Miro is the leading visual collaboration platform. Build anything together on Miro. It’s free and as easy to use as a whiteboard , but endlessly more powerful. Do use the Miro platform for strong communication within your team.

Examples of communication strategy

Here are some examples of communication strategies:

Clear and concise messaging: A communication strategy should focus on creating messages that are easy to understand and convey the intended meaning. This means using simple language, avoiding jargon, and being direct.
Targeted communication: A communication strategy should consider the audience and tailor the messages accordingly. For example, if the target audience is teenagers, the communication strategy should use language and visuals that appeal to that age group.
Multi-channel communication: A communication strategy should consider multiple channels to reach the audience. This could include social media, email, phone calls, in-person meetings, etc.
Consistent branding: A communication strategy should use consistent branding across all channels to create a cohesive and recognizable brand identity. This could include using the same logo, colors, and messaging across all communication channels.
Listening and responding: A communication strategy should include a process for listening to feedback and responding to questions or concerns. This could involve monitoring social media channels or creating a customer service team to respond to inquiries.
Measuring success: A communication strategy should include measuring the messaging and channels’ success. This could consist of tracking social media engagement rates, customer satisfaction scores, or sales figures.

Internal Communication Strategy & Plan| Examples| Best practices

Types of communication strategies

Several types of communication strategies can be used depending on the specific situation and purpose of communication. Here are some types:

Verbal communication includes face-to-face conversations, phone calls, and video conferencing. Verbal communication is an effective way to convey complex ideas and emotions and establish a personal connection.
Written Communication: This includes emails, letters, reports, memos, and other written forms of communication. Written communication allows for precise and detailed communication and can serve as a permanent record of the communication.
Nonverbal Communication: This includes body language, facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice. Nonverbal communication can convey emotions, attitudes, and intentions without using words.
Visual Communication: This includes graphs, charts, diagrams, photographs, videos, and other visual aids. Visual communication can simplify complex ideas and data and make communication more engaging.
Persuasive Communication: This is used to influence others to take a specific action or adopt a particular viewpoint. Persuasive communication can be achieved through various techniques such as storytelling, emotional appeals, and logical arguments.
Crisis Communication: This is used to address and manage communication during a crisis, such as a natural disaster, product recall, or data breach. Crisis communication requires timely and accurate information, empathy, and transparency.
Interpersonal Communication: This refers to communication between individuals and is often used in social or professional contexts. Interpersonal communication can include active listening, feedback, and negotiation skills.

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Building A Communication Strategy: The Ultimate Guide

Learn about how to define your communication and business objectives and how an effective communication strategy can turn your company into a successful, even beloved brand.

A company lacking communication skills can end up like a lonely kid in a sandbox with no one to play with.

Communication holds people together – the same goes for people and brands. Communication is forever and always a vital part of the product.

If customers like the way you communicate with them, and it makes them feel loved and taken care of, it will probably translate into more sales and more revenue for you.

We live in the digital age, where the information streams are endless, and it’s easy for brands to get lost in the noise. That’s why many businesses agree that communicating with consumers is becoming more challenging than ever before.

There are so many media and communication channels, – so how do you find the right way to catch your audience’s attention?

That's where a communication strategy comes in.

Building a successful communications strategy requires careful consideration of internal and external factors to get your creative message across.

This guide provides a framework for developing a comprehensive communication strategy.

What Is A Business Or Product Communication Strategy?🤔

The advantages of having a communication strategy😍, 10 important aspects of any communication strategy💯, developing a communications strategy plan, step by step🙌, communication strategy: the template📝, what’s next👀.

Important disclosure: we're proud affiliates of some tools mentioned in this guide. If you click an affiliate link and subsequently make a purchase, we will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you (you pay nothing extra). For more information, read our affiliate disclosure .

When creating an effective communication strategy for your business, you must consider whether you are communicating with your customers or employees. Because those are two different types of communication and therefore require two different strategies.

External communication

Any communication that happens outside your business. This is communication with your customers or clients.

Internal communication

Any communication that happens inside your business and between employees or stakeholders. This is peer-to-peer communication at its finest.

All communication, whether it be external or internal, should be:

So what is a communication strategy ?

In simple terms, a communication strategy is a detailed communication plan for communicating with your target audience ( external or internal ).

It outlines who you're communicating with, why you're communicating with them, what you're communicating, and how best to communicate with them for the best level of understanding.

What does a communication strategy outline

When it comes to marketing communications - an effective advertising and marketing communication strategy is a guide that helps transform a company into a brand in a way that makes your brand message and value clear. It’s a light beam that shows you the way and the approach to your audience.

It helps you learn how to provide people with additional value in the form of high-quality content and how to communicate with them in a way that will make them love your product. ( Or not hate it, ha! )

There are three different types of marketing communication strategies. Visual, verbal, and non-verbal strategies.

Your visual strategy is your website and any pictures used. Your verbal strategy is anything written or spoken. In contrast, your non-verbal strategy includes anything such as body language and facial expressions ( this is more important than you'd think ).

I know, it does sound a bit complicated, so why can’t we just play it by ear? Why do we need a company communication strategy? Are there any promising benefits?

The general answer is that if you want to run a successful business, you must plan your course in advance . Sure, you need to be flexible and ready to change, if necessary, but to work efficiently, you have to set your goals and define your purpose.

Any effective strategy is a canvas for decision-making and a stepping stone to reducing your communication efforts and creating effective customer relations.

You don't want to have to go back to the drawing board every time.

Having a communication strategy helps overcome the biggest communication challenges.

A communication strategy will help you define your audience(s) and consistently articulate your message so that staff and stakeholders can be on the same page about what your product is all about, and there is less chance of miscommunication.

External consistency in your communications is just as important. It allows customers or clients to feel as though they can trust your company.

This unification will also lead to smarter decisions and save time and money. If you understand your audience, you will direct your efforts more precisely. With the alignment of staff, board, and other stakeholders, it will be easier to get your creative message across.

Having a communications strategy means that there is increased clarity between the employees of your company and also between your customers and your business.

Effective marketing is no easy feat. With a communication strategy in your arsenal, you'll be able to guide your marketing content. Your communication strategy can outline the goals of marketing messages, target audiences, and any important details that need to be considered before launching a marketing campaign.

One alternative benefit – and an oh-so-important one – getting yourself a solid communication strategy is to measure success . When putting together your strategy, include benchmarks and an evaluation process. Later on, you can see whether your business achieved the goals you set or if you need to make a mid-course correction.

Be prepared to experiment!

Before I walk you through how to create your own communication strategy plan, there are a couple of essential aspects I'd like to highlight.

Target audience
A brief description
Background context
Objectives and outcomes
Unique selling proposition
Communication channels
Media types
Important and relevant messages
Key communication tactics
Measurement

1. Target Audience

This may seem obvious, but you must include information on your potential customer base . You must make sure that you clearly define who it is you're targeting.

An excellent way to do this is to create buyer personas , fictional characters that possess the ideal traits of your customer.

All this will help you determine the type of person who may be interested in buying your products or services.

2. A Brief Description

Not everyone will have the time to read through your entire communications strategy. This brief description should summarize your product, the key takeaways from the strategy, and the goal of the communications strategy.

Another vital aspect to describe is your brand.

Your brand and company are two different things. Your brand refers to how your target audience perceives your company . And it is just as, if not more important, than your company itself.

This will give those in a rush a brief idea of what's going on and set those who do have the time to read the entire thing up for success.

3. Background Context

Here I don't necessarily mean the background context of your business ( although if that helps clarify your communications, please go ahead and include it ).

Here I am talking about the background context of your audience, any key events that may have taken place, and any expectations they may have because of this.

You need to put your communications strategy into context. Communication doesn't just occur by itsel f. Several factors will affect it. You need to recognize this and account for it in your strategy.

4. Objectives And Outcomes

Without first stipulating your objectives, it will be unclear as to why you're even creating this communication strategy in the first place. These objectives should be achievable with the resources you have at hand.

They can be big objectives or small objectives . It just depends on your business's scope and your strategy's scope.

Your objectives are how you plan to achieve your outcomes.

Your outcomes are the purpose of your communication strategy. Are you looking to get potential customers or existing customers to take a specific action? Or are you just looking to inform your employees of something?

5. Unique Selling Proposition

Your unique selling proposition (USP) sets up the rest of your communication strategy. You need to know your value offer so that everybody is on the same page about why a product like yours is important.

Having a USP also helps you to determine your mission statement .

Your mission statement is your company's overall purpose . Why is there a need for a company like yours in the first place?

Having these two things in your communication strategy ensures clarity and consistency.

6. Communication Channels

There is no point in having a communication strategy if you don't have effective communication channels for you to use to get your creative messages across. So you need to consider the types of communication channels available to you.

For your internal communications plan:

Some communication channels include virtual or in-person meetings, instant messaging apps, emails, company-wide newsletters, a notice board, or just simple oral communication through informal discussions between employees and stakeholders.

For external communications :

Some communication channels include your website, blogs, podcasts, social media marketing, email marketing, SMS marketing via mobile phones, print media, or even in-store promotions ( if that suits your product or service ).

You don't need to write an entire descriptive passage about each communication channel. A simple list will suffice.

7. Media Types

This relates to the point above, as the media you use depends on the types of communication channels you're using. Through your communication channels, you can either use personal media that's intimate or impersonal media that's removed from the situation.

The main types of media include

Earned media
Shared media
Print media
Digital media

When it comes to media, you also need to think of the messenger that will communicate that media. Is it someone from your company? Is it an industry influencer? Or is it your own customers?

The messenger must have status , a certain level of expertise, and a positive relationship with your target audience to best communicate.

8. Important And Relevant Messages

Having a list of important messages your communications strategy hopes to get across is important.

It is important to know exactly what you want your target audience to understand after you've finished communicating with them. Although communication never really ends, does it ?

Outlining your important messages means that you know which direction you're heading in, it helps you to identify when messages may be outdated, helps show you how to change your messages to be tailored to your audience so that they are more engaging, and helps you come up with new ways to communicate said creative message.

9. Key Communication Tactics

How are you actually going to deliver the actual message ?

Your communication tactics are your implementation plan for communication activities. You need to think about what the actions are, why the actions are important, when the actions will occur, how the action needs to take place, and how often the actions will occur.

10. Measurement

There is no point in continuing with your communications strategy if it isn't effective. You need to be measuring the effectiveness of your campaign. Ask yourself, have you achieved the desired outcome? How long did it take to achieve the outcomes? Is there a better way to do this?

Document your entire process and use a template for your strategy so that you can go back and review it at any point. This makes it easier to make refinements and any changes that are necessary.

How do you know what to change? Talk to your employees and ask what went well and what didn't. You can also reach out to your customers and ask for feedback.

Developing a communications strategy plan can be complicated , especially if you've never done it before.

Suppose it’s the first time you’re developing a communication strategy for a business. In that case, you should get some sort of communication strategy to-do list to make sure you don’t forget anything.

Define your business objectives
Define your communications objectives
Analyze your current situation
Research your competitors
Conduct target audience research and segmentation
Define consumer insights
Determine channels of communication
Define positioning and key messages for different target audiences and channels

That may seem like a lot to go through and to think about, but don't panic. We are here to help you through this process. Here’s how to create a communication strategy plan in detail:

Define Your Business Objectives

First of all, start with assessing your business’ current situation . After you’ve established where you’re at, think about your business's short- and long-term goals.

Usually, business objectives include:

Profitability (making sure that revenue is always ahead of the costs of doing business)
Productivity (maintaining equipment, training staff, etc.)
Good customer service
Employee retention
Protection of core values
Growth and change management

For example , you own a company that helps sell music, both digital and physical, via the web and an app. You offer an exquisite selection of music that sells well.

You make sure your app functions properly and that all technology, including payments and music streaming, is up to date and functions properly. You can afford to pay your employees a decent wage, which leads to good employee retention.

You help your employees learn by signing them up for workshops, seminars, and other professional events in IT, music promotion, monetizing music from streaming services, etc. You build a good team that grows.

Analyze Your Current Situation

Any communication strategy should begin with an introduction. This should contain information on your business and outline its activities and products, main focus and functions, and where it’s based.

Specific tools will help you analyze your current situation and continue developing a communication strategy for your business’s future .

SWOT analysis is all about listing your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Consider what these mean for your business, if there are any weaknesses, how they can be turned into opportunities, and how threats can be avoided or eliminated.

PEST analysis is a tool that considers Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors that may affect your company's work. These can be either positive or negative, and you should list the reasons why they will affect your startup’s operation.

PEST analysis should help explore new thinking, not just conform to what you have now.

Sometimes, you may see other abbreviations – PESTEL (the E and the L stand for Environmental and Legal) or STEEPLE (with the addition of Ethical) or STEEP (including Economic and Environmental instead of Legal), but basically, it’s all about the same processes.

Research Your Competitors

Whenever you start a new venture, you will obviously check out what your competitors in this field are doing. It’s good to see what’s in the market you’re entering – so on the one hand, you know your options, but on the other, you don’t repeat what has already been done.

The idea is to create something unique that will fill an empty niche.

The same goes for communication strategies. You need to see how your competitors build a communication strategy to understand the market better and create your own unique positioning.

First of all, you will see where your competition directs their communication. Then you will see how they do it and monitor their behavior. Using this knowledge, you’ll be able to anticipate their moves, which will help you always stay one step ahead.

Conduct Target Audience Research And Segmentation

Having explored the field and what your competitors are up to, it’s now time to learn about your i ntended audience . You don’t want to spend your precious limited startup resources on an overly broad audience that doesn’t want, need, can afford, or appreciate the product you invested so much time and money in.

If you’re at a loss and can’t describe your future customers on the spot, go back to the time when you planned your business. You must have thought about who your product or service is going to appeal to , or who you want it to appeal to the most.

This is the answer that reveals who your target audience (TA) is, the people to whom you’re going to direct your communication and advertising.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

Make a list of populations or individuals you want to sell your product to. The list can be pretty long and cover a wide population range. For the music app, it can be as wide as “male and female adults 18-99 yo with access to high-speed Internet”.
Rank your audience to see who is the most important target at the moment. Although music is a common interest among all age groups, younger people tend to be more acquainted with technology and prefer apps and streaming over CDs, for example. Accordingly, you will want to communicate your digital services to them first.
Do audience segmentation to make your advertising even more targeted. This means breaking down your audience according to certain criteria or on the needs of a certain group so that you can deliver your ads at the right time and place. For example, you can promote different releases depending on the geography of their popularity or relevance, like Independence Day playlists or Christmas discounts.

It used to be quite straightforward. The demographic-based principle used to be the largest picture of a consumer: is the person male or female? How old are they? Where are they based? Etc.

These metrics don’t help you these days – people use different smartphones, laptops, tablets, wearable fitness bands, etc., not to mention countless apps, browsers, emails, and more.

Consumer behavior and working patterns change , and lifestyles and people’s values evolve and transform – which is why the next logical step in the evolvement of this principle is creating user personas.

Define Consumer Insights

To get a hold of all of these characteristics and be able to use them for your communication and marketing strategies, you’ll have to conduct consumer insight research .

As soon as you get inside the head of your customers , you will find out why they made this purchase, why online and not from a store, why on a weekday and not on a weekend, etc., and make a prognosis about their behavior in the future.

All this is actually what customer development is based on – it’s the perfect way to develop a product specifically for your audience.

You have to go out there and get your data.

But remember that there’s no single tool to help you get consumer insights – you can’t get them from a focus group or a survey. You need to go through a combination of activities to gather relevant information and analyze what you get.

Determine Channels Of Communication

At this point, you already know your intended audience and the basics of its behavior.

Now, make a list of media outlets and channels that can help you reach them.

Before creating the creative messages and the content, you need to know the format of your communication with your customers. You need to find out what communication channels your target audience already uses.

For example , if you’re creating a persona, what social media do they use? Where do they read the news? Does this persona read newsletters? Proper UX research will help you understand where and how which is no less important.

By the way, if you’re defining communication channels for your audience, don’t forget an option called omnichannel communication . Right now, it’s considered one of the most progressive.

And, considering the effects of different channels on the recipient, plan a timeline and key dates to know to whom and when you will communicate.

Define Positioning And Key Messages For Different Target Audiences And Channels

A company’s positioning and core messages help people understand why a company is useful, what values it has, what it believes in, and how it stands apart from its competitors. It’s like you’re meeting a new person and need to decide whether you like them or not, based on what this person does and their views on life.

Messaging can come in the form of a tagline, ad slogan, headline, or sales pitch.

Whatever it is, the creative message has to be consistent across the brand’s marketing channels , whatever segment of your TA you’re addressing, and suit the channel.

Remember to keep the message relevant and appropriate to the group you’re speaking to.

To get your creative message across successfully, try to follow this formula:

This is probably a lot to take in at once – but trust me, this is all very important to planning your business and your future. So let’s try to put all we’ve learned into a graphic.

Overall Business Objectives - Establish where you are and where you want to go.
Communication Objectives - Define your communication goals and how they align with your business objectives.
Current Situation - Analyze inner factors that can affect your business, like your company’s strengths and weaknesses, and external factors like politics, the economy, etc.
Research your competitors - Know your competition to get an edge over them.
Target Audience - Establish who your target audience is to know what communication style to choose and how to sell them your product or service. Use customer insights.
Communication Channels - Go through the list of your target audiences and think of the most appropriate communication channels to reach each audience. Make a timeline according to your planned key activities in the near future.

Part of your communication strategy is the content strategy . This is all about the management of any media you produce or own, be it written, visual, or downloadable.

You decide who you’re creating it for and what problem it will solve for the audience. Then you can brainstorm content ideas. Keep in mind that your content is what shows your values to the entire world and, among other things, gives your audience additional value.

You also decide how your content will be unique , what format it’s best transmitted in, and through what channels. After you’ve done all of this, you schedule and manage the content creation and publication.

The communication strategy was all about how to reach your audience, grab their attention, and create decent content, not just content for the sake of it.

The content strategy is part of a bigger toolset that helps you do this.

Right now, it may be hard to believe, but everything I’ve described here is critical to understanding where your business is and how to communicate with your audience. It will help you understand your business and your future better.

As I said earlier, communication is the bond between all of us . It is what helps us through good days and bad days.

Communication between people and brands has its ups and downs , just like communication between people. And if a person doesn’t like what you’re saying, it may be hard to convince them that your product or service is worth their attention.

But if you start applying respectful and caring communication strategies in business development , you’ll be guaranteed loyal customers and a better chance of success.

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Light pink notebook on yellow background. 10 steps to writing a communication plan blog post

How to Write a Communication Plan

Sarah Mai & Samantha Scott

Aug 5, 2021

12 min. read

Communication is key to running a business. Full stop. The secret is to have a solid communication plan in place to keep all your teams and stakeholders aligned. But how do you write a communication plan and what exactly is it? In this blog, we’ll explore 10 key steps to writing a communication plan for easy reapplication across multiple channels.

Table of Contents

What is a Communication Plan?

What is the difference between an internal communication plan & external communication plan, what should a communication plan include.

A communication plan is a document and/or calendar that provides marketing & PR teams a cohesive structure for crafting their messages. It is designed so everyone has a clear understanding of which stakeholders should be contacted and when.

Your plan is the glue that helps your campaign from hitting any roadblocks and it’s a bible to refer to when marketers get stuck in a messaging rut (or rather, try too hard to get out of a well-established rut - not all ruts are bad when it comes to branding ).

When writing a communication plan, think of it as a template that you'll be able to use for all different communication efforts. Speaking of templates, we have a free communication plan template available just for you!

Communication from a marketing and PR perspective covers a lot of bases, and cohesion in planning across all teams is super important.

An internal communications plan is the framework you use when communicating with all your employees. The types of communications in your plan can include company updates, product announcements, and other important business news. These internal updates will often be delivered by way of an internal newsletter .

An external communication plan outlines how, when, why, and where you need to connect with your different audiences, such as social media followers and email subscribers, and other external stakeholders such as investors.

Planning this communication, whether internal or external, requires having a clear strategy so you know who needs to be contacted first and what you want to accomplish when you deliver the message. Is the objective to encourage employee engagement around some exciting company news? Then you need to connect with your social media manager first. Is the objective to announce a new software update? Then you may want to connect with the product marketing team to anticipate some FAQs.

Green speech bubble on yellow background showing three thinking dots made out of craft paper. How to write a communication plan blog post image

The more specific you can be with times, dates, media contacts , goals, and objectives for each communique, the more useful your communication plan will be in keeping everyone aligned.

An effective communications plan should include:

A clear schedule

Who needs to be communicated with and when? Have a list of all possible stakeholders, both internal and external, who will be receiving communication from your company.

For example, if you’re announcing a product update, will it include a press release? Does it need to be announced to investors first? How soon after the press release goes out will you send internal communications ?

Make sure you include the specific goals behind each type of communication from your company. Note that the goals should apply specifically to the communication method (such as social or email). We'll go into this more below.

Key messages

What are the key messages you want to get across in your communication? This should be related to your goals. If your CEO is speaking at a conference, you make send him a communication plan that highlights key messages he/she must include in the presentation around your market share, your hiring expectations, or new markets you've recently entered.

These key messages should be tailored to the demographic you are trying to reach, and fit the medium you are using to communicate them through.

Tip: Remember to think about how your brand voice and personality when developing the key messages during your communications planning.

When crafting your plan, here are 10 steps that are important to keep in mind for effective communication with your key stakeholders. Your strategy will always evolve, and it's important to let it, however, the steps below provide a great starting point for building a template that can serve as a reference point for your organization:

1. Identify the current status

Start mapping out your communication plan based on the current status of your marketing strategy and the ROI you saw the previous year. Analyzing your social media reporting, or marketing reporting , in general, will be critical when it comes to informing the direction of your strategy.

This way, you can design your plan more confidently, based on the data. It is important to not get too hung up on historic data, however, given that the subject of your upcoming communication will usually be different. But you can still analyze receptiveness based on time of year, time of day, news outlets that performed better, multimedia style (video vs still image for example), etc.

Childs spinning top toy balancing on a table. Looking at past metrics is important for writing a communication plan

You can do this analysis yourself, but it can be a lengthy process. If you already have a media intelligence solution like Meltwater, you can use it to gain in-depth insights into how your current and past communication strategy is working, track industry developments, and keep tabs on competitors.

To get you started use the below metrics and look for patterns to optimize your plan:

Media exposure – tracks coverage (both editorial and social media) volume over time.
Top sources – breaks down social media buzz by channel or publication.
Google Analytics – provides a clearer picture of what types of posts generated website traffic.
Share of voice – compares coverage volume for two or more topics/ competitors.
Sentiment – assesses the tone of a brand’s coverage over time.
Trending themes – uncovers conversational patterns surrounding a topic.
Top locations – helps identify the top markets discussing a brand or event.
Top social posts – explains the social content with the highest social reach value within a given date range.

2. Be clear about the objectives

Clearly define the communication goals and objectives within your plan. Specificity is extremely helpful in this step - write down the details of who you plan to communicate with and why. Ensure that your strategy goes hand in hand with the various department’s business objectives. It’s a lot easier to get buy-in if you can prove how your plan contributes to the wider picture, illustrating how it benefits the company and drives bottom-line ROI.

3. Craft your strategy

Glowing lightbulb showing many connections inside.

A well-thought-out strategy is where you can nail down the actual action items and assign responsibilities to bring your communication plan to life. There are several models and templates marketers can use to map these internal and external influences including SWOT analysis , Porter's 5 Forces, and PESTEL .

A SWOT analysis is a good place to start when analyzing internal and external insights. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. You can use this framework to benchmark the progress of your new communication activity to make sure your plan is as effective as it could be.

Porter's 5 Forces model is widely used to assess external forces, along with a PESTEL analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal). You can use this template when you'd like to determine if your plan needs to change based on competitor activity, large internal company shifts, or if you spot a potential crises brewing.

4. Who is your audience?

Your company probably already has a clear idea of who your target audience is and your various marketing personas . But it’s always a good idea to revisit these since trends can impact consumer behavior and this will affect how you communicate with them. Using a social listening and monitoring tool is a great place to start - allowing you to dip into the natural focus group of social media to gain a deeper understanding of your target audience.

Remember that your communication plan needs to take into account a lot of different audiences - and the messaging tone and context will differ depending on who you are communicating to. For instance, how you communicate the same piece of news to an investor is vastly different than how you should deliver it to your social media followers.

5. What is the message?

White text in sidewalk chalk saying "You Got This". Understanding what message you want to send is important to your company communication plan.

What message are you trying to communicate? Messaging that worked last year isn't guaranteed to work in the current year; this is especially true if there have been industry changes or internal shifts at your company. For example, a competitor may have come into your space, causing you to no longer be the most innovative supplier.

Your communication should then be amended to convey a more enticing value-prop, and you should work to refine the way you represent your product. As you make this change, consider how your communication strategy should look for letting your key stakeholders know about it.

6. Channel selection

Old fashioned jukebox cover, with selection buttons. Choosing the channels for your messaging is an important step to your communication plan

Where will your messaging be taking place? Determine the communication channels that will be used , when you’ll use them, and whom each channel is intended for. Each communication method will accomplish different goals as well, so have a place to define what you’re hoping to achieve.

For example, in a social media post, you may be looking for new followers, likes, or comments. Whereas for an email you’re probably looking for an increase in open rates or CTR.

Your communications should cover the many communication mediums you're using in your marketing strategy such as:

Social media - engage with new and potential customers, find influencers, track competitors, and address customer complaints
Email marketing - communicate with your subscribers to promote events, new blogs, and move them further down the marketing funnel
Internal newsletter - keep your employees abreast of company news, changes, product updates, and announcements
Print - connect with consumers through physical brochures, newspaper articles, or signage.
Push notifications - a particularly helpful strategy if your business has a mobile app, but push notifications and SMS marketing is not limited to apps. This is a useful way to get in front of eyes that may not check their email or social media regularly.
Digital ads - make sure you’re well-aligned with your paid advertising team so you can ensure the ads you have running are relevant and topical to any current campaigns or upcoming events.
Online media - reach out to journalists with story pitches or press releases to reach a wider audience than those who already follow you or are subscribed.

7. Determine your budget

Budget is, of course, an essential part of the planning stage for your communication strategy. It’s important that you ensure you’re realistic in matching your plan with your resources: even a small budget can have a big impact if resources are used properly and you understand where your strengths lie.

8. Assign responsibilities

Make sure the appropriate point-person is clearly defined in your communication plan - and make sure their responsibilities lined are outlined carefully. Are they responsible for pushing campaigns live or is there another person's final "ok" needed for sign-off? Who should be contacted if they aren’t available? Who will be helping them with all the necessary assets? You’ll want to have all these questions answered in your plan.

9. Establish a clear timeline

Two coworkers planning out a timeline with sticky notes.

Communications planning is most effective when your timeline is well laid out with target dates and times. This also makes it easy to identify certain next steps that need to happen, such as follow-ups or feedback requests. You’ll also be able to see where certain blockers are happening and can work to correct them.

A good place to start is with a Gantt Chart Template, which helps you map out each quarter and its specific objectives in one timeline. Ensure to leave room for unforeseen projects and activities that may occur during the year.

10. Follow up

Lastly, know that your communication plan is not infallible. There will always be changes, though they shouldn’t be made lightly or in a vacuum. Because so many departments and teams are involved in ensuring your communication plans go off without a hitch, it’s essential that you keep everyone involved.

Have a check-in with your team to evaluate your goals and performance regularly to see if you’re meeting your milestones and objectives. During these check-ins, there may be unexpected opportunities that you find to elevate your message, or you may spot a potential crisis brewing, meaning you’ll need to do an emergency adjustment to your crisis communications plan .

Need help with ongoing follow-up on your communication plan?

With insights found using Meltwater’s media monitoring tools, you’ll be able to keep up to date with how your brand is featured in the media and keep track of important industry news and trends. And be sure to check out our free communications plan template to help you get started.

By using data-driven insights you can better understand how best to communicate with your target audience and internal stakeholders. Fill out the form below if you’re interested in learning more about optimizing your communication plan!

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Crisis Communications Guide

Image showing a large yellow and white megaphone in front of social media profiles and a pink and white target with a purple arrow in the bullseye. Marketing communication strategy blog post.

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Internal Communications Best Practices to Drive Your Business Forward

How to create a business analysis communication plan

Lucid Content

Reading time: about 6 min

Business analysts help companies improve their processes, systems, and operations by analyzing current practices, defining business needs, and proposing solutions. In other words, business analysts (BAs) are in the business of change.

Once BAs define the problems and the solutions, they help initiate changes through careful communication and planning across the organization. Because business analysis covers the entire organization, BAs must facilitate cross-functional communications that effectively speak to the needs for change and the path forward so stakeholders at every level support the initiative.

That’s where a strong communication plan comes in.

BAs must be skilled communicators, enabled by a robust communication strategy and plan. Without buy-in from employees and leaders throughout the company, change initiatives will fall flat.

Below we’ll cover what a business analysis communication plan is, why it’s important, and best practices for developing a BA communication strategy.

Why is it important to have a communication plan?

A formal communication strategy helps business analysts communicate change requirements, project initiatives, and business needs clearly and consistently. This is an important part of the communication strategy because business analysts must be able to communicate clearly across the organization throughout the iterative change management process.

As projects and requirements evolve and different stakeholders engage in the process (or are impacted by the initiatives), communication acts as the glue that holds everything together and keeps everyone on the same page.

A communication plan provides a roadmap to guide messaging decisions and ensure that information is relayed in the right way to the right people.

In short, a strong communication plan:

Keeps things organized
Drives efficiency through a set process
Ensures the communications reach the right audience

What is a business analysis communication plan?

Requirements communication is an important part of a BA’s responsibilities. Ongoing, iterative communication helps BAs convey key business requirements, findings, and recommendations throughout the business analysis process.

Business analysis and requirements communication involve numerous activities including:

Managing conflicts
Determining the requirements format
Creating a requirements package
Presenting the analysis and requirements
Reviewing requirements
Obtaining requirements signoff

To successfully communicate through each of these tasks, BAs need a clear communication plan.

A business analysis communication plan is a framework that helps BAs document:

What information needs to be shared.
Who needs to receive the information.
When information should be delivered.
How information will be shared (platform and setting).
Required stakeholder actions (sign off, review, give feedback).
Next steps after stakeholder actions.

A communication plan should outline the purpose of the communication, how those goals will be achieved, the audience, the timeline for delivery, and how results will be measured.

Use visuals to outline your communication plans and keep track of key messaging strategies. Visuals like a communication plan chart or communication matrix can help you get started.

Visualizing your communication plan will keep your framework organized into key categories such as stakeholders, deliverables, task or project owners, priority, and delivery method. Take advantage of visualization solutions that are easily shareable and collaborative to disseminate information efficiently and keep everyone on the same page.

Best practices for developing communication plans

Creating and implementing a robust communication plan takes work. But the payoff is worth it. Use the following tips and best practices to nail your business communication every step of the way.

1. Determine your communication goals

What is your purpose for the communication? For instance, are you managing conflict, creating a requirements package, or seeking sign-off from stakeholders? Each objective will affect how you communicate with your audience and the tools and strategies you use.

For example, if you are managing conflict surrounding business requirements and stakeholder expectations, you might have to get everyone in a room together to have a meeting to bridge the gap. Or, you may need to prepare a presentation with additional supporting research to back up your initial requirements analysis.

2. Consider your audience

How you communicate information will also depend on who your audience is. Consider what communication format and messaging is most effective for each individual or group you’re communicating with.

For example, your audience may be most receptive to a formal presentation with follow-up emails. Meet your audience where they are while ensuring all requirements are fully documented throughout the process for reference.

Communication methods could include:

Status reports
Meeting summaries
Presentations
Video conferencing
Chat or email
Shared collaboration tools like interactive visuals

3. Pay attention to frequency

Communication can make or break your company’s engagement. While what you say is important, how often you communicate can play an equally important role in building trust and keeping everyone on the same page throughout the change management process.

Don’t leave people to guess what is going on in the business or how it might impact them. Bring people into the conversation so you are always working from the most up-to-date information and ensuring no one is left in the dark.

Paying attention to the frequency and cadence of your communications will improve engagement and buy-in from your stakeholders across the organization.

4. Use visuals to deliver your communication

Communication must be consistent and clear. Avoid text-heavy, complex plans in favor of easy-to-digest roadmaps. While many BAs outline their plans in spreadsheets or text documents, visuals can help you organize and present your messaging plans and information simply and effectively through every business analysis stage.

The following templates can help you get started:

BPMN process flow diagrams help analysts understand current business processes and identify opportunities to improve them. These are a great addition to your BA toolbelt both for analyzing and documenting as-is processes as part of your analysis, as well as communicating your findings to stakeholders. Use these diagrams to illustrate current processes and pinpoint where and how your recommendations fit in.

Current vs. Target Balanced Scorecard

Balanced scorecards help BAs compare current business metrics to strategic goals. These are a great tool for analyzing the gap between where the business is now and where it would like to be. Use balanced scorecards to help communicate gaps in your strategic targets and support your case for recommended requirements.

Business Model Canvas

A Business Model Canvas is a one-page document that summarizes your business plans. This is a great asset for BAs because it succinctly communicates strategy, plans, and vision with enough detail to provide context and clear information about process and decision-making.

Business Model Canvas organizes the following information in one easy-to-digest visual:

Value proposition —What problem are you solving
Key partners —Who needs to be involved in producing and delivering these solutions
Key activities —What needs to be done to achieve your goal
Key resources —What you need to deliver these results
Customer relationships —How do you talk to your market about these solutions
Customer segments —Who needs your solution
Channels —How will you deliver your solution

This visual is a great tool for organizing your plans and communicating the business value of your recommendations to stakeholders at every level.

A successful business analysis isn’t complete without a well-executed communication plan. Use these tips to bring your organization together on key business requirements and make an impact today.

Create a robust communication plan and strategy to gain employee buy-in and communicate key details with stakeholders in Lucidchart.

About Lucidchart

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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Blog Beginner Guides How to Communicate Strategy To Your Team Effectively

How to Communicate Strategy To Your Team Effectively

Written by: Sara McGuire Sep 02, 2020

Aligning your team is always challenging. Aligning your team so they can act quickly, when there are still many uncertainties ahead, is even more challenging.

At Venngage, we had to pivot our marketing strategy based on shifting trends we saw in our target markets . We’re fortunate to be able to say that, by and large, we have been successful.

In this guide, I’ll share a framework for how to communicate strategy clearly and effectively, based on my experience leading the Content Marketing Team at Venngage. I will also share effective communication strategies other leaders have been using during these uncertain times.

Table of Contents (click to jump ahead)

Two important things to keep in mind to communicate effectively, the 5-step framework to communicate strategy.

How to keep your team aligned

Templates to help you communicate strategy (communication plans, roadmaps, mind maps, flow charts and more)

Three common barriers of communication

How leaders are communicating strategy to their teams

Miscommunications are inevitable – especially with many teams working remote. But from my experience, there are two best practices you can follow to communicate strategy clearly with others. Let these two best practices guide how you approach your strategic communications:

1. Keep your message as simple and direct as possible

The high-level strategy you need to communicate may be complex, with different inputs and concurrent projects, but the main objective should be easy to understand.

When communicating your strategy to your entire team, focus on the main objective and the high-level milestones that need to be hit to get there. Essentially, communicate the framework within which you need your team to operate to hit the main objective. You can go into more specific details when communicating with smaller teams or individual contributors.

Depending on the size of your company, the industry you’re in, or the nature of your project, the guidelines for how you reach your main objective may be stricter or more open. In cases where your guidelines are stricter, make sure to tie the steps back to the main objective. Meanwhile, in cases where the guidelines are less strict, you will need to guide your team on keeping their focus on the main objective, not getting distracted or veering off course.

CREATE THIS MIND MAP TEMPLATE

2. Use visuals to make your communication more effective

Visuals help make information more memorable. When it comes to explaining complex processes with multiple inputs, using text or verbal communication alone can often leave gaps in understanding. Research has been done to indicate that communicating with visuals helps to increase retention of information .

One way you can use visuals to make your communication more engaging AND effective is to visualize the main inputs of your strategy. Here’s an example of a simple visual that breaks down high-level goals (increase repeat customers by 31% and decrease CAC by 5% every month) into four strategic inputs:

CREATE THIS ROADMAP TEMPLATE

A visual like this can serve as a reference doc for your team, to help them stay aligned on the goals. You can include it in your project plan and share it in weekly/monthly team meetings to keep it top of mind.

I’ll share some more visual communication templates further down in this guide. Click here to jump ahead.

Now, how do you effectively communicate your strategic plan?

When it comes to communicating a strategy to your team, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here is a simplified 5-step framework you can follow to communicate strategy effectively to your team.

Framework For Communicating Strategy Infographic

USE THIS TEMPLATE

1. Start with your vision

Narrative is a powerful tool for communication. People like to know where they fit into your organization’s narrative.

When communicating your vision, establish the problem you are aiming to solve with your strategy:

Who does this problem impact?
What are the human emotions associated with this problem?

Your vision should tie back to your organization’s mission statement. This will help contextualize your strategy within your organization’s overarching narrative, which can help motivate your team to want to impact that narrative through their work.

Not every project you embark on will be glamorous or inspiring in nature. For example, you may need to communicate a strategy for improving your organization’s analytics tracking and reporting.

Yawn, right?

But if you tie the project back to the human impact it will have–for example, more clarity for your organization and the ability to make more informed decisions, which can lead to more confident execution on tasks and less frustration at the unknowns–you can still make the project meaningful for the team members involved.

2. Set clear and measurable objectives

One of the biggest mistakes a lot of small organizations make is not identifying specific, measurable goals for their projects. If the outcome of a project isn’t measurable (even if there isn’t a perfect way to measure it), it will be difficult to know whether or not you actually achieved your goal.

Some common types of project objectives are:

Financial objectives : revenue growth, sales targets, profit margins, returns on invested capital, diversified revenue base
Business objectives : product launch, team growth, opening or closing an office)
Technical objectives : implementing new technology, automating a process, prototyping a product
Quality objectives : increase NPS score, reduce customer support response time
Performance objectives : number of successful product releases, delivering within a given budget or timeframe
Compliance objectives : compliance with certain regulations, meeting and exceeding health and safety regulations, meeting legal regulations
Marketing objectives : increase social media engagement, increasing site traffic, increasing sales leads, increasing brand awareness

Communicate to your team what specific metrics the success of the project will be measured against. If you’re giving a presentation, dedicate an entire slide to these primary objectives:

3. Break down your strategy into inputs

Once you’ve communicated your high-level objectives, break down how your team will achieve them. This will ground your abstract vision in real, actionable steps.

Another way to look at it is to communicate the outcome of your strategy (the goal) and the different concurrent tracks your team needs to follow to get there (inputs).

When it comes to breaking down your strategy into inputs, it helps to consider both leading and lagging indicators (or leading and lagging metrics).

Communicating your strategy to your team using both leading and lagging indicators can help them better contextualize the goals in their everyday processes.

Bernard Marr has a whole guide to leading and lagging indicators that goes into more detail, but to summarize:

Leading indicators

Leading indicators are inputs that impact a potential outcome in the future. Your leading indicators impact your lagging indicators.

For example, let’s say your primary goal is to increase customer acquisition by 20%. Marketing leading indicators could be backlinks, social media engagement, or sales channel growth.

These are metrics you can track that contribute to your high-level goal. If you hit your leading indicators, it should follow that you will hit your goals.

Lagging indicators

Lagging indicators are inputs that have already happened. Examples of lagging indicators are typically metrics like revenue and profit.

Returning to our marketing example, a lagging indicator could be keyword rankings and conversion rates.

A common trap many teams fall into is to focus on lagging indicators. The problem with that approach is that it can make it difficult to identify where you should focus your efforts earlier on to better steer the ship towards reaching your goal (i.e. by tracking your leading indicators).

But by identifying the leading indicators that contribute to the success of hitting your lagging indicators, you can track your progress incrementally.

4. Outline clear milestones

You’ve got your vision, your high-level goals and your inputs. Now you need to communicate your strategy’s timeline.

Communicate to your team:

What are our touch-points throughout this project?
When are the deadlines for these deliverables?

Visualize your timeline using a roadmap or timeline infographic to help make the process more concrete in the minds of your team.

CREATE THIS INFOGRAPHIC TEMPLATE

5. Identify ownership

A crucial part of implementing a strategy is for everyone involved to have a clear understanding of what their responsibilities are. From my experience, when the individual contributors on your team have a strong sense of ownership, they are more likely to rise to the challenge.

Confusion about who owns what can lead to missed opportunities, roadblocks in productivity, and a general lack of efficiency.

When communicating your strategy to your team, clearly identify who will own what. Furthermore, make it clear why they are owning that particular area of the strategy. This is a great opportunity for you to call on your team members’ strengths.

Essentially, you want your team to feel like the A-team they are.

It’s also important to define what ownership means in the context of your strategy. Does it mean ownership of tracking a specific set of metrics? Does it mean finding solutions to certain problems? Does it mean coordinating a specific process?

The more clarity you can provide from the outset, the easier it will be for your team to hit the ground running.

Corporate Weekly Project Gantt Chart Template

CREATE THIS CHART TEMPLATE

Once you’ve communicated your strategy, how do you keep your team aligned?

You’ve communicated your strategy to your team. Everyone on your team says they understand the goals and their individual roles. You feel motivated. Your team feels motivated.

But your work isn’t done. Now it’s up to you to make sure your team stays on track and aligned with the goals you’ve set.

Tie back inputs to your high-level objectives, often

When it comes to keeping your team aligned on your goals, repetition is key.

When everyone on your team is plugging away at their individual tasks, it can be easy for people to get lost in the weeds.

Some ways you can help keep your team aligned on your high-level objectives are:

Repeat them in your weekly/monthly team meetings
When your team reports on their progress, steer the conversation
When scoping projects, measure the results by their impact on your leading indicators

That last point is an important one. It can be easy to get distracted by ideas that are nice to have, but may be better off tabled until later. When you need your team to act on a strategy fast, it’s important that everyone’s time and efforts are focused on things that will get the results you need.

Here’s an experiment planning checklist template you can use make sure tasks support your high-level goals:

CREATE THIS REPORT TEMPLATE

Check in on your individual contributors, often

Don’t micro-manage. But be present. This will help you address any problems as they arise, as well as foster credibility within your team.

By being present, I mean setting up structured check-in points daily, weekly, or bi-weekly – whatever makes sense for your team and your project. Aim to structure your check-ins around progress, learnings so far, and roadblocks your team members may be encountering.

Your check-in points could be:

Team standups where everyone shares status update, roadblocks and asks from the rest of the team
1-1 meetings with your team to discuss progress and roadblocks more privately
Project status updates in your weekly/monthly team meetings

Communicate your team’s progress, often

People don’t want to exist in a vacuum. Regularly give your team updates on how their work is contributing towards meeting your milestones and your high-level goals.

Creating a visual roadmap can be helpful for keeping your stakeholders updated on your team’s progress. You can track tasks completed, tasks in progress and tasks that still need to be done.

Templates to help you communicate strategy

Visual communication can make your ideas easier to understand and easier to retain. Here are some essential communication strategy templates.

Roadmap Templates

Roadmaps make it easier to track projects at a high level, identify deliverables and deadlines, track progress towards goals, and show multiple concurrent timelines.

Simple Project Management Roadmap Template

Timeline Templates

Use a timeline to show a simplified visual of events in a process. Timelines can be a particularly engaging way of visualizing milestones.

Mind Map Templates

Mind maps allow you to visually group ideas, show relationships between parts of a strategy, and break down abstract concepts.

Team Communication Strategies Mind Map Template

Flow Chart Templates

Flow charts help you map out processes with different options or tracks more effectively. They also allow you to plot potential risks and show potential outcomes based on variables.

Project & Business Plan Templates

Depending on the scope of a project, you may need a more detailed document. That’s where a project plan comes into play. In a project plan, you outline your goals, who your key players are, milestones and deadlines, budget, dependencies and risks, and next steps.

CREATE THIS PLAN TEMPLATE

To supplement a longer doc, it can also be largely beneficial to put together a concise one-page plan that summarizes the main points:

Simple Project Management Communication Plan Template

Crisis Communication Plan Template

I think we’re all pretty used to being in crisis mode at this point. One thing is certain: it helps to have a plan. Here’s a template that you can use to communicate your escalation framework and key roles and responsibilities for responding to a crisis.

We have a guide with more crisis communication plan templates here.

Three common barriers to effective communication

Miscommunications are unavoidable. Different people have different ways of communicating. Here are some of the most common communication barriers you are likely to come across.

1. Physical barriers

Many teams have moved their teams remote, some for the next year at least. This creates new physical barriers that many teams have not had to face before.

Some tactics I’ve found to be effective for overcoming physical barriers are:

Hop on a video conference call or phone call to talk through complex issues
Provide feedback on a call or in-person as much as possible
Following up on calls with a written message reiterating what you talked
Having clearly laid out process documentation for your team to follow (written and video)

It’s easy for the nuances of communication to be lost through text, so difficult and complex conversations should take place where physical cues can be seen.

2. Emotional barriers

If a member of your team seems disengaged with their job, it’s your responsibility as a leader to figure out how you can help them feel engaged again.

Are they feeling stressed? Overwhelmed? Is their stress related to work, or external, from something else going on in their personal life?
Do they feel their work doesn’t have an impact? Are they lacking direction?

Often, disengagement can come from a lack of direction. From my experience as both a manager and an individual contributor, having a clear sense of how your work is contributing to the success of your team can make you feel way more motivated.

3. Communication styles

Dear reader, I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of miscommunications. That’s not a knock on you – everyone communicates a bit differently and because of that, miscommunications are inevitable.

Working together as a team means learning how to communicate with each other effectively , despite your differences. This goes for delivering feedback (do they prefer the cold hard truth? Or do they need the compliment sandwich?), communicating progress, and communicating setbacks.

You will never be perfect at this. People are too complicated. But it’s almost always better to err on the side of being too direct.

Read: direct , not callous. Ground your communication in respect and efficiency:

Be honest and direct with your team members so they understand what your expectations are.
Respect the feelings and motivations of your team members and try to work with them towards mutual understanding.

Granted, this isn’t as simple as my point form list makes it out to be. For a much more in-depth and authoritative guide to communicating directly with your team, I recommend the book Radical Candor by Kim Scott.

Team leaders share their communication strategies

I wanted to see how other people in leadership roles communicate strategy to their teams. So I asked some of the most knowledgable leaders I know to share their communication strategies.

Set goals collaboratively with your team

“The truth is, there is no perfect formula for communication strategy effectively with your team. But hearing how other leaders have approached this challenge can help guide you. Here are tips from other leaders on how to communicate strategy to your team: “The biggest help in keeping me and my team aligned when it comes to strategy and our priorities is to set goals collaboratively. That way everyone has an understanding of what our priorities are as a company and how team goals level up into those larger company-wide objectives. To make sure we stay aligned, we talk about our goals every single week, how we’re tracking against them, what we’re confident in hitting (and not-so-confident), and if anything has changed (and why). It’s also a great opportunity to get back on track if we’re behind on any goals, which helps build more ownership across the team. The tool we’ve been using has been Hypercontext Goals .”

— Hiba Amin, Content Marketing Manager @ Hypercontext

“We’re a business that offers plugins to users that can help them grow their eCommerce business. And since we’ve several plugins to work on, we’ve started following a practice where we host meetings for a specific plugin twice a week. In the meetings, we plan a strategy on what things we’re about to improve and how we’re going to do them. This practice lets everyone know what strategy the whole team is following a specific product. As we get enough points to implement, we mention all those points as different tasks and subtasks on the Clickup tool. And align those tasks to the respective person. This makes sure that every individual is aware of the tasks they’re aligned with and they need to work on.”

— Satyam Mishra, Content Strategist @ MakeWebBetter

Focus on communicating the most important information

“Strategy by definition is complex. It’s a stretch to expect a team to understand every little input and metric that leads to the successful execution of a good strategy. As a leader, it’s important to try to distill what’s important into one or two key components or KPIs that your team can truly get behind. Once you do that, repeating that goal consistently and frequently is key to aligning your team on what matters. Lists of data points, or un-engaging spreadsheets are a surefire way to confuse and bore your team. You need to show your employees how to their work ties into the goal, and you need to inspire them to want to hit those goals. Visual reminders and exciting design can help that message stick.”

— Nadya Khoja, Chief Growth Officer @ Venngage

“When communicating a new content strategy to our team we focus on the internal and external components that can help them better understand the process. For example, we recently did an analysis of our client content and uncovered some common themes of the most successful link building pieces, which meant trying to encourage our client teams to adjust their brainstorm process to uncover these opportunities. We tackle the communication a few different ways. First, through an internal meeting with managers so they could understand and effectively educate clients. Next through a wider lunch & learn with our specialist team on how to execute the ideas. And finally through public facing materials like updating our blog, sharing it via our podcast and introducing new training documents. This ensures we’re not only informing the current staff on the process, but new team members are on boarded as well.”

— Caroline Gilbert, Director of Marketing @ Siege Media

“We’ve spent some time talking about long-term goals. I don’t want my team to get bogged down in today’s challenges. Our plans will not be hampered by short term issues and I want everyone to know that’s true.”

— Ben Reynolds, CEO $ Sure Dividend

Be honest and direct with your team

“As a manager and business owner, it is critical for me to improve my communication skills that will be effective when dealing with my team. In terms of disseminating information and strategies with them, I made sure to not sugarcoat anything and be straightforward, especially with urgent and complicated matters. This made us more transparent with each other and developed a clear path of discussion. I also motivated them to be open and freely express their opinions and suggestions. Since we are in a remote work set-up, we are aided with communication tools such as Slack and Zoom to reach each other. Aside from being user-friendly, these tools are both serving their purposes for the team, allowing as to conveniently discuss any concerns at any time. Before the pandemic, we were able to have in-person meetings for urgent and important projects and issues, but now, everything is done virtually.”

— Sonya Schwartz, Founder @ Her Norm

“Your communication needs to be Clear and Explicit. When employees or people who are going to be a part of a strategy aren’t available in a common room, it becomes challenging to make everyone understand it. One of the best ways to communicate strategy to remote people is to make it simple, clear, and explicit. The strategy must have a clear vision, mission, value, process, and tactics. People must be able to understand what a company wants to achieve and how it will be achieved.”

— Rahul Vij, CEO @ WebSpero Solutions

Show empathy in your communication with team members

“There are two things which were important to the tone of my conversations with my employees during the past months: Confidence: These were dire times but it was vital to not allow panic to take a grip on our everyday work. Empathy: Besides being difficult times for the company, these were extraordinary times for all of us. It was important to have our HR research actionable tips for our people to make it safely through this pandemic.”

— Kuba Koziej, Senior Vice President & Growth Specialist @ Zety

“I always make sure to ask how my employees are doing before laying out instructions or new protocols to them. It’s best to know and assess the mental state of your staff before feeding them pieces of information again. In communicating, I always put my emotions at a bag and never carry it, knowing that as a boss, I should be more understanding at all costs and look at the bigger picture of things.”

— Willie Greer, Founder @ The Product Analyst

Take the time to verify that you have been understood

“When communicating strategy, you should always make sure you’re understood. Like giving instructions before playing a game, ask comprehensive checking questions. Stopping to ask does that make sense? And waiting to hear a yes or no helps break up your communication into digestible chunks. Some people are auditory learners, while others are more visual. Therefore, it’s helpful to use different platforms to communicate your strategy. Asana is a useful tool for those who like to see everything in writing. You can use Loom to record and send videos of you explaining things for more auditory learners.”

— Siva Mahesh, CEO @ Dreamshala

“A big part of successfully communicating strategy is understanding that not all people take in information in the same way, and its because of this I think repetition is key. When presenting strategy to clients or a team, offer the strategy in a number of different ways – these could include Presentation, Graphs, Written Document, Audio File and more.”

— Daniel Foley, Director @ DanielFoley.co.uk

“I believe in the importance of strong communication with employees. It’s critical to communicate often about the direction of the company, goals, engagement with the partners, and opportunities. I believe that it’s important to share strategy and messages with the team so the entire group is moving in the same direction and committed to the overall success of the business.”

— Deborah Sweeney, CEO @ MyCorporation.com

Build processes around communication

“ We usually do a lot of training in house at Klint. These days not only is it harder to sit with clients, but we’re struggling to cope with so many new rules related to Covid19 and personal space. This has given rise to more remote opportunities overall. The reality is; retention of information is low even when it’s a 1 for 1 in person explanation. We’re getting larger magnitudes of “communication loss” once we move to live digital explanations on google hangout or zoom. The distraction is only one tab away and if you’re anything like me- I have a 1000 of them open right now. The result of this chaos is actually that my communication has actually gotten a lot more structured. These days my writing is more concise and a lot of my work comes with a video explanation. Everything has to be organized this way from our digital marketing clients projects to our in house growth-hacking playbooks If you’re not using Google Sheets, Airtable , One Drive, etc; I don’t know how you’re maintaining control over any of your processes.”

— Taylor Ryan, CEO @ Klint and ArchitectureQuote

“We have built new procedures to ensure that our remote and in-person teams can collaborate efficiently and team members have ready access to the information they need. The current crisis has taught us that internal communications are the cornerstone of any business resilience strategy. Our priority is to create a framework to ensure that our team members are constantly updated, engaged, valued. Sending communications in real time segmenting messages to different audiences is a vital part of this framework. We ensure that our team members stay engaged and connected and are proactive in providing guidance and support to those who need it.”

— Matt Bertram, CEO & SEO Strategist @ EWR Digital

“To stay on strategy I try to set the tone upfront with one rule, when in doubt over-communicate by setting up regular e-mails, video/conference calls. If the lines of communication are open and everyone makes an effort to listen and be heard then collaboration will happen naturally and the information will flow. Pivoting to online meetings,/webinars is a smart and productive way companies can continue to have conversations that educate/inform, build relationships and move forward during this crisis. If small groups want to talk through specific issues (managing anxiety/kids/parents) virtual coffee meetings online have been helpful too. “

— Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO @ Mavens & Moguls

More visual communication guides:

How to use visual communication: definition, examples, templates.

Growth Strategy Checklist: Plan Your Business Goals With These 5 Templates

Discover popular designs

Infographic maker

Brochure maker

White paper online

Newsletter creator

Flyer maker

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Strategic HR Technology Investment: A Comprehensive Checklist for Global HR Teams

Engagedly Blog

Performance Management

How to develop a successful communication plan for performance management.

The People Strategy Leaders Podcast

Effective communication is the backbone of any successful organization, and when it comes to performance management, this statement holds especially true. In today’s fast-paced business world, a well-designed communication plan can make all the difference in ensuring that employees are aligned with company goals and objectives, their performance is accurately evaluated, and their efforts are recognized and rewarded. However, developing a comprehensive communication plan for performance management can be quite challenging for even the most experienced managers. That’s why in this blog post, we will dive deep into the intricacies of creating a successful communication plan that can enhance your organization’s overall performance management system.

Also read: Handling Workplace Conflicts Like a Pro: New Manager Edition

Setting the stage for communication, define your communication objectives.

Purpose-driven communication is vital in the performance management process because it defines the objectives that will guide the process. You could have the following objectives:

Increase employee buy-in:

Communication should focus on increasing employee buy-in by showing how the performance management process supports the company’s goals and the individual’s progress.

Improve clarity on the process:

Open, honest communication about how the performance management process flows, its timetable, criteria, and evaluation protocols helps employees and managers understand what the process is all about. It reduces anxiety and the externalization of the process.

Emphasize the benefits for employees and the organization:

Communication should demonstrate that the performance management process leads to organizational success and provides employees with benefits like professional development, recognition, and career advancement opportunities.

Also read: What Is Dotted-Line Reporting in Organizations?

Identify your target audience.

Knowing the target audience is a cornerstone for communicating strategically. Here are two facets of your workforce you can focus on:

Employees at all levels:

Building a communication plan for all organizational employees means designing personalized goals, information, and outcomes for each level.

Managers specifically:

While managers set the standards, give feedback, and assess performance, they also initiate the process. Equipping managers with specialized communication instruments, methods, and skills will enable them to perform their duties efficiently and lead teams to success.

Also read: How to Prevent the Cost of Fraud in HR? – Engagedly

Choosing the right channels.

Selecting the right communication channels is crucial for ensuring the message is received and understood by all members of the organization. Below are some ways to use a communication plan for performance management .

Consider the message and the audience.

Different channels serve specific purposes and audiences:

Use formal channels such as company-wide emails, newsletters, or intranet postings to announce initial details about the performance management cycle , policy updates, or changes in procedures. These platforms ensure that everyone receives the same information simultaneously, maintaining transparency and consistency.
To help everyone understand complex aspects of the performance management process, such as how to use new software or how assessments are conducted, conduct in-person or virtual training sessions.
Organize regular Q&A sessions where employees can freely ask questions and express concerns about the performance management process. These can be held as open forums or virtual meetings, providing a safe space for dialogue and clarifying doubts.
Utilize internal communication tools for ongoing updates, reminders, and continuous feedback.

Also read: What Is a GROW Coaching Model?

Use a multi-channel approach for maximum reach and engagement.

Adopting a multi-channel communication approach ensures that messages reach the entire intended audience in formats that cater to diverse preferences and needs, thereby maximizing engagement. This strategy involves using a combination of emails, meetings, digital platforms , and face-to-face interactions to cover all bases.

By providing multiple ways for employees to receive and interact with information, organizations can enhance understanding, participation, and buy-in across different levels. This approach also helps in reinforcing key messages through repetition across different media, ensuring that important details are retained and acted upon.

Also read: How Does Generative AI Hep in Enhancing Employee Experience?

Crafting clear and compelling messaging.

Below are the ways to communicate the new performance management process.

Focus on the “why”

Effective communication in performance management hinges on employees understanding and embracing the rationale behind the process. This understanding can significantly influence their engagement and cooperation.

Make it clear that the process is designed not merely as a bureaucratic exercise but as a strategic tool to ensure that every employee’s efforts align with the organization’s broader objectives.

Emphasize personal benefits such as career growth, recognition, and development opportunities. Clarify how the process provides a structured path for professional development and skill enhancement , leading to potential promotions and salary increments.

Use clear, concise, and jargon-free language

Avoid using technical terms or complex jargon that might confuse employees. Use straightforward, simple language to ensure the message is accessible and easily understood by everyone, regardless of their role or level within the organization.

Also read: What are Salary Bands?

Emphasize the positive aspects of performance management.

Always present performance management in a positive light. Highlight stories or examples of how the process has helped individuals or teams improve and succeed. Positive framing helps build enthusiasm and reduce any anxiety surrounding evaluations or feedback.

Frame it as a collaborative effort between managers and employees

Present performance management as a collaborative, ongoing dialogue rather than a one-sided assessment. Emphasize that it is a partnership where both parties contribute openly and constructively. Managers are there not just to evaluate but also to support and guide their teams toward achieving their personal and professional goals.

Also read: Why Your Business Should Invest in an HRIS – Engagedly

Implementation and ongoing communication.

Use the following strategies to communicate and implement performance management processes:

Develop a communication timeline

Pre-launch announcements to generate interest:

Start by communicating about the upcoming performance management process a few weeks before its launch. Use these announcements to create buzz and set expectations.

Outline the process’s goals and benefits for the employees. This can be done via emails, posts on internal social media, or team meetings.

Training sessions during rollout:

Once the process is about to begin, organize comprehensive training sessions. These sessions should educate employees and managers on how to use the performance management system , understand the criteria, and give and receive feedback. Ensure that these sessions are interactive and allow time for attendees to ask questions.

Regular updates and reminders throughout the process:

Throughout the performance management cycle, send out periodic updates and reminders via emails, newsletters, or internal communication platforms. These updates can inform staff about key dates, such as review deadlines, and provide tips on achieving their objectives. Regular communication helps keep the process on track and maintains high engagement.

Also read: How HRIS Can Enhance Employee Onboarding and Offboarding Procedures

Address concerns and answer employee questions promptly.

Create a dedicated channel for questions and concerns regarding the performance management process. This could be an email address, a hotline, or a chat function on your company intranet.

Staffing this channel with knowledgeable HR personnel will ensure that responses are timely and helpful. Prompt and clear responses can reduce anxiety and confusion, thereby enhancing trust in the process.

Gather feedback and iterate on the communication plan as needed

After the initial rollout and at the end of each performance management cycle, actively seek feedback on communication effectiveness . Use surveys, focus groups, or informal one-on-one discussions to gather insights.

Evaluate what worked well and what areas need improvement. This feedback should be used to iterate and improve the communication plan, making adjustments to timing, channels used, or the clarity of the messages.

Continually refining the communication strategy based on direct feedback will help tailor the approach to better meet the needs of the organization and its employees.

Also read: PTO Accrual: What It Is and How It Works

By aligning goals, fostering open dialogue, providing constructive feedback, and leveraging appropriate channels, organizations can ensure that their employees are empowered, engaged, and motivated to achieve their best. Remember, effective communication isn’t just about conveying information—it’s about creating a culture of transparency, accountability, and collaboration that drives continuous improvement and ultimately leads to greater organizational success. With a robust communication plan in place, companies can navigate the complexities of performance management with confidence, ensuring that every team member is positioned for growth and development.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should a communication plan be reviewed and updated.

A communication plan should be reviewed and updated annually or whenever there are significant changes in the organization, such as new performance management software, changes in leadership, or shifts in strategic direction. Regular updates ensure the plan remains effective and relevant.

Can a communication plan impact employee engagement?

Absolutely. A well-crafted communication plan can significantly boost employee engagement by making staff feel informed, supported, and valued. Clear, consistent communication around performance helps employees understand their roles better and how their contributions align with organizational goals.

What role does culture play in the communication plan for performance management?

Organizational culture greatly influences how messages are received and perceived. The communication plan should align with the organization’s culture to ensure messages are appropriate and resonate with the audience.

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Srikant Chellappa is the Co-Founder and CEO at Engagedly and is a passionate entrepreneur and people leader. He is an author, producer/director of 6 feature films, a music album with his band Manchester Underground, and is the host of The People Strategy Leaders Podcast . He is currently working on his next book, Ikigai at the Workplace, which is slated for release in the fall of 2024.

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Use a Communication Plan template. Determine current and potential problems. Select key stakeholders who need to be involved. Understand your audience and what matters most to them. Brainstorm your ideal results, and then work backwards. 1. Use a communication plan template. HubSpot's Communication Plan Templates are a great resource to help ...
How to Communicate Your Company's Strategy Effectively
Buy Copies. Summary. For too long, communicating strategy has been an afterthought. Executives have shared long, bombastic documents or withheld critical information and expected people to just ...
6-Step Guide to Crafting the Perfect Communication Plan
Steps to Communication Planning. Step 1 - Perform a Situation Analysis. SWOT Analysis. PEST Analysis. Perceptual Map. Step 2 - Identify and Define Objectives / Goals. Step 3 - Understand and Profile Your Key Audience. Step 4 - Decide the Media Channels and Create a Strategy. Step 5 - Create a Timetable for Publishing.
Free Communication Strategy Templates and Samples
9-Step Strategic Communications Plan Template for Word ... Simply Communicate: A Business Guide to Strategic Communication by Kristel Keys Running. Steps businesses and managers through the details of communication strategy. After reading the book and following the steps, readers will have a customized and solid organizational communications ...
How to write a communication plan (with template and examples)
A communication plan is an inspectable artifact that describes what information must be communicated as well as to whom, by whom, when, where, and via what medium that information is to be communicated. In addition, a communication plan outlines how communications are tracked and analyzed. A communication plan can take various forms.
The Communication Strategy Framework
The framework guides you through the process of planning and organizing your communications, so that you can prepare clear and effective letters, emails, presentations, and speeches. The framework consists of four elements: Communicator strategy. Audience strategy. Channel strategy.
How To Effectively Communicate Your Strategic Plan To Employ
A strategic communication plan is a written plan outlining communication to your team on your organization's objectives. This plan is deliberate with messages and tactics used to help engage employees with your strategy and fuel performance success for your organization. ... Print your five strategic plan themes on business cards. Ask people to ...
Creating an Effective Business Communication Strategy
Related: 10+ Crisis Communication Plan Templates for Leaders + Managers. Technology-driven company communication has also become the only way to cope with isolation after lots of organizations have switched to remote operating. ... Creating a business communication strategy is an ongoing process. Things that seemed to work first may stop ...
How to Write an Effective Communication Plan [2024] • Asana
1. Establish your communication methods. The first step to creating a communication plan is to decide where your team will communicate—and about what. This includes when to use which tools and when to communicate live vs. asynchronously. Live, synchronous communication is communication that happens in real time.
How to Write a Strategic Communication Plan Template
The Benefits of a Communication Plan. Before we get into how to write a strategic communication plan, let's see how such a document can benefit your business. Here are the advantages of a communications strategy plan: It improves client and stakeholder management; It defines the communication process; It creates a positive brand image; 1.
A guide to writing a strategic communication and content plan
Strategic communication planning is an important part of business and nonprofit management because it saves time, money, and stress - while helping achieve business goals. Here's how to create a strategic communication plan in three sections.
10 communication plan templates + how to write your own
To make the most of your social media communication plan, define the target audience on each platform, outline KPIs for measuring success, and establish helpful guidelines that can tie into your crisis communication plan and leverage social media in case of an emergency. 5. Change management communication plan. Make a copy.
Communication Strategies: Explained with Types & Examples
Communication Strategies: Explained with Types & Examples. A communication strategy is a plan that outlines how an organization or individual will communicate with its target audience. It includes a set of goals and objectives, key messages, communication channels, tactics, and metrics to measure the success of the communication efforts.
Make an Exciting Business Communication Plan
Examples of business communication strategies. Now that we have learned the benefits of a great business communication plan, let's find out some of the most effective and exciting strategies out there. Integrate fun videos into your communications strategy. If you want a good business communication plan example, then think of a video.
PDF Writing a communications strategy
A written reference document against which to judge progress. Collaboration between the business/project leader(s) and the communications professional(s) Identifies: clear and measurable communications objectives with evaluation. relevant audiences and available channels. a plan of activities and a timetable.
Building A Communication Strategy: The Ultimate Guide
A company lacking communication skills can end up like a lonely kid in a sandbox with no one to play with. Learn about how to define your communication and business objectives and how an effective communication strategy can turn your company into a successful, even beloved brand.. Communication holds people together - the same goes for people and brands.
15 Communication Plan Templates for Professional Use (2024)
Template #1: Strategic Communication Plan. Strategic communication plans are essential documents that corporations, organizations and companies use to maintain stable and constant communication with their audiences. Below is an example of a communication plan template you can use to streamline communication. ... 44 Business Report Templates for ...
How to Write a Communication Plan [Free Template]
2. Be clear about the objectives. Clearly define the communication goals and objectives within your plan. Specificity is extremely helpful in this step - write down the details of who you plan to communicate with and why. Ensure that your strategy goes hand in hand with the various department's business objectives.
How to create a business analysis communication plan
BAs must be skilled communicators, enabled by a robust communication strategy and plan. Without buy-in from employees and leaders throughout the company, change initiatives will fall flat. Below we'll cover what a business analysis communication plan is, why it's important, and best practices for developing a BA communication strategy.
How to Communicate Strategy To Your Team Effectively
Let these two best practices guide how you approach your strategic communications: 1. Keep your message as simple and direct as possible. The high-level strategy you need to communicate may be complex, with different inputs and concurrent projects, but the main objective should be easy to understand.
Free Strategic Plan Template and Best Practices
With the communication strategic plan template, you can evaluate your company's current communication strategies and identify improvement areas. ... In this business model strategy plan, you can highlight the packages themselves and why they're important in terms of convenience, value and customization. Other pages include an overview, ideal ...
How to Develop Communication Plan for Performance Management
Communication should focus on increasing employee buy-in by showing how the performance management process supports the company's goals and the individual's progress. Improve clarity on the process: Open, honest communication about how the performance management process flows, its timetable, criteria, and evaluation protocols helps ...
9 Communication Principles for Today's Business Leaders
To be a leader with influence, you must create a culture of engagement and participation, through your language in all channels. 4. Message tone must align with your observable actions. With the ...
What Is Apple Doing in AI? Summaries, Cloud and On-Device LLMs, OpenAI
By Mark Gurman. May 19, 2024 at 5:45 AM PDT. Apple was caught flat-footed in the generative AI race, and the company will need to change its strategy if it wants to catch up. Also: The misguided ...
2024 Social Media Marketing Industry Report
Inside this detailed 43-page report, Social Media Examiner uncovers: Most used social media platforms for B2B vs. B2C. Current and future organic social plans. Video marketing use and future plans. Platforms that deliver the most exposure, sales, and leads. How marketers are responding to AI.

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6-Step Guide to Crafting the Perfect Communication Plan

Components of a Communication Plan

Why is a Communication Plan Essential?

Who Should Use a Communication Plan?

When Should You Implement a Communication Plan?

Where Does a Communication Plan Apply?

1. Target Audience

3. Outcomes

5. Messengers

6. Measurement

Overcomplicating the Plan

Not Considering the Timing

Not Adapting to Changes

How often should a communications plan be updated?

How can an organization measure the effectiveness of its communications plan?

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What Problems that Communications Strategy Plans Solve

The Benefits of a Communications Strategy in Action: Three Case Studies

A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Strategic Communications Plan

Begin With Your Mission Statement

Do Your Research

Create S.M.A.R.T. Objective(s)

Identify Audiences and Influencers

Check In with Colleagues

Define Your Key Messages

Theme Development

Tips for Selecting Strategic Communication Channels and Platforms

Setting and Measuring Metrics

Social Media Considerations in a Strategic Communication Plan

Overall Work and Activity Planning

Crisis Communication Planning

Putting Your Strategic Communications Plan Together

Additional Communication Strategy Planning Tools & Resources

Glossary of Marketing, PR, and Communication Terms

Professional Marketing Organizations

Strategic Communication Planning Books

Improve Your Communications and Marketing Efforts with Smartsheet for Marketing

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How to write a communication plan (with template and examples)

What is a communication plan?

Benefits of a communication plan

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How to create a communication plan in 6 steps

1. What type of information do you produce?

2. Who should receive that information?

3. How often should they receive it?

4. What channels are most appropriate for this type of information?

5. When is communication done for that type of information?

6. Who should make it happens?

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